Manila court deals blow to Duterte

Supreme Court orders government to reveal records on deadly anti-drug killings

The Philippine Supreme Court yesterday ordered police to hand over full records of thousands of deadly encounters in the country’s war on drugs, thwarting a government bid to keep operational details of the bloody crackdown secret.

The high court gave the solicitor-general, Jose Calida, 15 days to comply with a December order that he had challenged on the grounds of national security.

Human rights and legal groups lauded the decision as a triumph that would help bring to book state officials involved in what they say are systematic abuses, cover-ups and executions during President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody 21-month campaign.

“The Supreme Court has demonstrated with this initial order that it will perform its role as our people’s beacon and bastion of justice,” said the Centre for International Law, a group of domestic human rights lawyers who were among the petitioners who had asked for the incident records to be disclosed.

Solicitor-general Calida did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Police spokesman John Bulalacao said he would not respond until he had received a copy of the court order. The move comes just a few months after the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it had started a preliminary examination of a complaint filed by a Philippine lawyer accusing Duterte and top officials of crimes against humanity.

Duterte has since withdrawn the Philippines’ membership of the court in protest, even though it has no impact on the ICC’s jurisdiction, which applies for the period in which a country was a member.

About 4,100 people have been killed by police and several thousand more by unknown gunmen whom the authorities have described as vigilantes, or rival gang members.