Piston joins the nationwide call for justice by demanding the immediate transfer of Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC). We condemn the Duterte camp’s attempts to obstruct accountability and we urge the ICC to act swiftly to ensure Duterte faces trial for crimes against humanity.
Under Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs,” over 30,000 Filipinos—mostly poor youth and urban poor—were slaughtered in state-sponsored killings. Duterte also orchestrated numerous human rights violations against workers, unionists, and activists that resulted in the state-sponsored murder of labor leaders Manny Asuncion and Dandy Miguel.
These extrajudicial executions, orchestrated by state forces and vigilantes, terrorized our communities and stripped countless families of their livelihoods. As a national federation of transport workers who also witnessed this brutality firsthand, we refuse to let these atrocities be buried in impunity.
The ICC has already established reasonable grounds to hold Duterte accountable for systematic murder and crimes against humanity. Every delay denies justice to victims’ families and emboldens tyrants. We reject hollow claims of “national sovereignty” being weaponized to shield murderers. Human rights transcend borders, and the ICC’s mandate to prosecute mass atrocities must prevail.