Listen to this article:

After Philippine authorities surrendered former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC), authorities – or at least those factions that do not support Duterte – have launched a nationwide effort to arrest and surrender Senator Ronald dela Rosa as well. Dela Rosa served as Duterte’s national police chief during the deadly “war on drugs,” a campaign in which numerous residents of impoverished communities across the Philippines were executed.

During the campaign, gunmen linked to the police would enter impoverished neighbourhoods, seize men and teenage boys, and shoot them dead. In some cases, the killers left signs on the bodies reading, “Don’t be a pusher and an addict like him.” Most of those killed were poor people, some of whom may have used drugs, but they were not major traffickers. Even if they had been, they should have faced criminal prosecution rather than extrajudicial execution.

In many countries, uncovering Israeli involvement in such abuses has required painstaking investigative work. In the case of Duterte and Dela Rosa, however, both men openly publicised and boasted about the weapons shipments they received from Israel. The Philippine government’s official news agency reported on the deliveries, and Dela Rosa held public ceremonies at which he received Israeli-made weapons and distributed them to police units involved in the “war on drugs.”

Photo:........

© The Wire