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MANILA, Philippines — A former lawmaker found it surprising that Vice President Sara Duterte now claims that drug war deaths under the term of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, may be due to gun violence when they have been touting the past administration’s anti-crime drive as successful.
In a statement on Friday, former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares, who is also one of the lawyers for victims of the drug war, said that they view Duterte’s statements as an admission that crimes and gun violence escalated during the time of her father.
Duterte said this during a rally in the Hague, Netherlands, in protest of her father’s continuous detention before the International Criminal Court (ICC). During the program, Duterte said that it is wrong to think of drug war deaths automatically as extrajudicial killings (EJKs) when having someone gunned down is as easy as paying P5,000.
“Firstly, we were surprised why VP Duterte admitted to the escalation of crimes and gun violence in the Philippines during the presidency of her father,” Colmenares said. “After all, they have been claiming that crime and violence during Pres. Duterte’s rule was down.”
