‘MORE BIRTHDAYS TO COME’ Their party hats putting it bluntly, anti-Duterte “well-wishers” gather at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila on Friday as they mockingly mark the 80th birthday of the detained former president, whose so-called drug war claimed thousands of lives. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — On former President Rodrigo Duterte’s 80th birthday on Friday, relatives of victims of his brutal drug war wished him long life, but only to serve time behind bars.
Duterte is celebrating his birthday in a detention center of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, where he was surrendered by Philippine authorities to face the charge of crime against humanity of murder for the thousands killed in the bloody campaign.
“In memory of all those killed in the sham drug war who will never blow another birthday candle, we mark this day in protest,” said the group Rise Up for Life and for Rights, which represents at least 200 victims of extrajudicial killings. “We wish you justice.”
READ: Palace wishes Duterte ‘good health, good fortune’: ‘He needs that’
For those left behind by the people killed in the drug war, the former president’s birthday was a “fitting moment for remembrance” as they continue to bear the pain and suffering of the death of their loved ones, Rise Up said in a statement.
‘Only fitting’
Dahlia Cuartero, a mother of one of those killed in the drug war, pointed out that Duterte was lucky to have reached 80 when victims like her young son, Jesus, were killed without due process.
“Many of us are still waiting for justice for our loved ones who were killed under your administration,” Cuartero said in a statement. “Mr. Duterte, it is only fitting that you live long.”
Emily Soriano, the mother of another teenager who was also killed in the antinarcotics campaign said her wish was to exact justice from Duterte.
“Duterte’s family is lucky to still have him. But for us, families and victims of the war on drugs, there is no one left to call us ‘mama’ or ‘papa’ because they are gone. Our loved ones are gone—killed by Duterte’s ‘war on drugs,’” she said.
READ: Rodrigo Duterte marks 80th birthday in ICC detention
72nd birthday
On Duterte’s 72nd birthday in 2019, police killed a Manila barangay councilman who was supposedly on Duterte’s “narcolist” as a suspected drug dealer. He allegedly fought against officers who tried to serve an arrest warrant. The officers said they recovered about P1 million worth of “shabu” (crystal meth) and a .45-caliber pistol at the scene.
Child Rights Network (CRN) and Kalitawhan Network said in a joint statement on Friday that more than 100 children were killed in the war on drugs from 2016 to 2022.
CRN is an alliance of organizations pushing for a law to protect children and Kalitawhan is an advocacy group that helps children in conflict with the law.
“Today, the former President is lucky to be alive to celebrate his birthday. But for Althea Barbon, Myca Ulpina, Danica May Garcia, Francis Mañosca—children who had not even reached the age of 8 when they were killed in the name of the ‘drug war’—birthdays are no longer a reality,” they said.
The groups noted that the children were “not collateral damage,” but were victims of an “antipoor and flawed” antidrug policy that was “prone to abuse of power and failed to see drug use and dependence as a problem of health.”
The ex-president also received well wishes from ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, whom he once threatened to have killed on national television, said she prayed for his strength “so he can face his case and be held accountable.”
“I think that the weight of his sins against Filipinos and victims of extrajudicial killings both in the war on drugs and his war against dissent—he really has to face the consequences,” Castro said.