Manila, Philippines – March of the current year when former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested and detained in ICC at the Hague, Netherlands over crimes against humanity charges linked with the alleged killings under his administration’s war on drugs campaign.
Seven months after, his detention remains a debate, over legalities of his arrest, as well as if he should be brought back home.
During this period, two interim release requests have been filed—one under the argument that Duterte did not commit the allegations and that he is not flight risk; second under humanitarian considerations given his deteriorating health and cognitive condition.
The concerns over his health were accepted by the ICC Pre-Trial Court, resulting in the postponement of his confirmation hearing initially set last September.
The two interim release requests, however, were rejected by ICC last week.
Meanwhile, if Filipinos were to be asked, the majority of the countrymen agreed that Duterte should be held liable over the extra judicial killings tied with his drug war campaign.
Based on the latest report of Social Weather Stations (SWS), 50% of Filipinos agreed that the former president should be held accountable for the alleged killings.
The biggest portion were from Visayas, with 54%, followed by the National Capital Region at 53%, 52% from Balance Luzon, while 39% from Mindanao agreed to the premise.
Most of those who agreed were from the 55 year old and above age group, while 25-34 age group being the lowest posted at 36%.
On the other hand, 32% of Filipinos disagreed with the premise—with the most number coming from Mindanao, a Duterte territory, with 48% disagreeing that he should be held liable for the alleged EJKs.
15% are undecided, while 4% said that they don’t know enough of the issue to give an opinion.
The survey was conducted on September 24-30 through face-to-face interviews with 1,500 Filipino adults nationwide.
Presently, Duterte remains under detention while there is no confirmation yet on the progress of his trial.—Mia Layaguin, Eurotv News