UNDER PRESSURE The former president’s blood pressure is being monitored at the Villamor Air Base lounge, in this photo posted on Instagram by his daughter Kitty Duterte. FILE PHOTO / Instagram
MANILA, Philippines – Veronica “Kitty” Duterte, daughter of arrested former President Rodrigo Duterte, urged Filipinos to light a candle and be united in prayer as her father is scheduled to make his first appearance before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, on Friday.
The former president was arrested in Manila on Tuesday through the virtue of an ICC arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity during his administration’s war on drugs.
In an Instagram story, the younger Duterte said, “Tonight at 9 p.m., my father, FPRRD, is going to stand before the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC.”
“I am calling unto you, not as his supporters, but as Filipinos, to stand for what is right and light a candle, whether you are in the Philippines or abroad,” she also said.
“Let us be one in prayer and one in upholding our rights to this sovereignty,” she concluded.
The former president was flown to the ICC headquarters in The Hague on the same day he was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
He is infamously known for the bloody war on drugs and alleged human rights violations committed during his term.
This drug war claimed more than 6,000 lives, according to official government data.
However, human rights watchdogs estimated the death toll from the drug war to be between 12,000 and 30,000 from 2016 to 2019. The groups said several of the cases are extrajudicial killings (EJKs).
READ: Groups, kin of EJK victims call for Rodrigo Duterte imprisonment
Also on Tuesday, hours after Duterte’s arrest, various progressive groups and relatives of victims of EJKs held a protest along the Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City, calling for justice and his imprisonment.
During the rally, relatives of the alleged victims once again recalled the deaths of their loved ones.
Some turned emotional as they remembered how their sons and daughters were killed during Duterte’s brutal drug war.