How crime against humanity was waged

One lawyer has, over the years, compiled and documented, with religious passion, many of the acts of mass murder waged by Rodrigo Roa Duterte, first as mayor of Davao in 1998 when he established the Lambada Boys, and into the early 1990s when the group became known as the Davao Death Squad, and later as head of state of the Philippines when he and his co-conspirators agreed to “neutralize” alleged criminals, individuals with criminal propensities and drug offenders, initially in Davao and subsequently throughout the country.

She is Atty. Maria Kristina Conti of the Rise Up for Life and Rights group. She is also secretary general of the NCR chapter of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers. She is a UP graduate – mass-com and law. She took the Bar in 2013.

Before the congressional quad committee on Oct. 11, 2024, lawyer Conti tried to make sense of the senseless of Duterte’s war on drugs.

Conti said Oplan Double Barrel was launched on the first day of Duterte’s presidency, June 30, 2016. It became Oplan Double Alpha, Double Barrel Reloaded and finally, Oplan Double Barrel Finale or ADORE.

From July 2016 to May 2022, the national police admitted to killing 6,252 and arresting 345,216 suspects, out of the more than three million Duterte said were drug addicts.

The International Criminal Court began preliminary investigation of the killings in early 2018, and a formal investigation in early 2020. By March 7, 2025, the ICC Pre-Trial Court of three women judges had issued an arrest warrant which the PNP served on Duterte on March 11, 2025 for crime against humanity.

Crime against humanity has three elements – systematic, widespread and an attack on the civilian population. Formation of the DDS indicates the mass murders were systematic. Then Gen. Bato dela Rosa’s Command Memorandum Circular of July 1, 2018, “The PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Campaign Plan – Project Double Barrel,” is the proof that the murders were a PNP policy and became nationwide or widespread.

The mission of Oplan Double Barrel was to “clear all drug affected barangays across the country, conduct no letup operations against illegal drugs personalities and dismantle the syndicates.”

The PNP Recapitulation Report of homicide cases under investigation (HCUM), during July 1, 2016-March 21, 2017 – a period of just nine months – PNP reported 5,824 homicide cases in which 6,299 victims died, 4,565 of whom were civilians. Of the 6,299 victims, PNP listed only 1,370 victims to be drug-related; 894 non-drug related and 3,560 “motive to be determined.”

Conti told the quad comm of two types of killings. Those committed by unknown perpetrators and vigilante killings where there were witnesses but the perpetrators were unknown. The other type of killings were those conducted by the police, whether drug related or index-crime related. These police operations consisted of buy-bust operations, implementation of search warrants and implementation of arrest warrants.

In the first few months, the killings were the Mexico- or the Sinaloa-style. Bodies were dumped by the roadside. They were wrapped with duct tape, with narco messages, “Huwag tularan, pusher ako.” Killings were classified initially as “deaths under investigation” (DUIs). Later on, they said murders... murder cases under investigation. Eventually, homicide cases under investigation. “In the first year alone of Duterte as president, there were already 5,000 homicide cases,” said Conti.

As to how systematic, here is how the killings were done, according to Conti:

Step 1 is Vilification. You would be put on a drug list. You would have to be in this drug list, possibly, there could be crowd-sourced information from the public, such as the controversial Masa Masid dropbox, mandatory drug tests in communities where there would be violation of your right against self-incrimination. There is also curiously the palit-ulo scheme, where you would take information from small-time targets and exchange your life for that of another. Essentially, ilalaglag niyo po ang ibang tao.

Step 2 is Operation. Police operations usually resulted in nanlaban (victims fought back) scenarios. In these scenarios, there would clearly be planting of evidence because that would justify the operation as a drug operation. The victim or the deceased would have to have a firearm and drugs on his body.

There were rewards and quota systems. And this is another curious example which we heard from Cebu, so far, one-time, big-time operations, which are guised as SACLEO, or Special Anti-Criminality Law Enforcement Operations. Talagang paramihan ng patay.

Vigilante killings were made under Davao Death Squad-style. Either you have contract killings or, in some cases, the police themselves conducted the hits, but they were in disguise or off-duty.

Step 3. This is what makes these extrajudicial killings, not just murders, absolution, absolute impunity for the crimes.

There would be no or poor investigation and, in many of the cases, no prosecution. The President promised pardon for many of... or almost all of the policemen who would likely have killed someone in the course of operations.

Conti claimed even the PNP has admitted up to 29,000 deaths probed since the drug war launched.

Conti said for president Duterte, the numbers don’t matter. The more the merrier. And now, how can the perpetrators be taken to account?

Crimes against humanity are under Rome Statute, Article 7, which talks about widespread and systematic attacks in the acts of murder and other inhumane acts. So, it is a little bit different from just homicide and murder. Crimes against humanity talked about the whole lot and for crimes against humanity, the numbers don’t matter.

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Twice, I mentioned in this column the bad delivery service for my The Economist weekly magazine subscription. Delivery of the weekly was one to two weeks delayed. In the past three weeks, you know what has happened? The Economist stopped delivering my hard copy.

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