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Doctor of Juridical Science candidate Perfecto Caparas, LL.M. ’05, published a piece in Jurist in which he stressed the pivotal role of a “critical human rights mass” in enabling the Hague-based International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte and top officials for allegedly orchestrating the murder of 12,000-30,000 civilians. The article was published September 20.

In the article titled “How Philippine Authorities Appear to be Scheming to Bar ICC Probe of Duterte-Era ‘Death Squads’”, Caparas hailed the country’s Commission on Human Rights, progressive state and civil society actors, victims and surviving kin, independent journalists, lawyers, ESG-oriented corporations, UN human rights mechanisms, and the ICC itself as “critical factors” to counter government’s moves to stop ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan from holding Duterte et al accountable for murder and other forms of crimes against humanity.

Duterte’s and Ferdinand Marcos-Sara Duterte’s governments “are both unwilling and unable to investigate and prosecute former president Duterte and the leaders of the ‘death squads’ for the widespread and systematic slaughter of civilians,” Caparas wrote. “Members of Duterte’s own political dynasty, proteges in congress, courts, and executive departments and offices… are attempting to thwart the ICC’s attempts to gather evidence of crimes against humanity penalized under the Rome Statute.”

“Military and police institutions are among the elements fighting against the ICC’s push to investigate the 12,000-30,000 civilian deaths at the hands of the police, their ‘force multipliers,’ and so-called ‘vigilantes’ believed to be undercover state agents themselves,” the article states.

In condemning Duterte’s “reign of terror” after his election as president in May 2016, Caparas foretold that the ICC will be carrying out a preliminary examination and eventually a preliminary investigation of those crimes against humanity.