MANILA: Family members of people killed during former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs demanded an investigation on Friday (Apr 4) into what they say has been a flood of online threats since his arrest.
Duterte was detained on Mar 11 and put on a plane to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands the same day to face a charge of crimes against humanity tied to his drug war, in which thousands of mostly poor were killed.
On Friday, the relatives of four of those slain and their lawyer, Kristina Conti, filed complaints asking the National Bureau of Investigation “to identify the names, addresses and IP addresses” of alleged Duterte supporters responsible for online threats and disinformation targeting them.
Conti said her own social media pages had been bombarded with “hate speech, expletives and misogynistic remarks”.
“People might think that if the victims are gone, the case against Duterte will be dissolved too. So we are taking these threats seriously,” she told reporters after filing the complaints, warning that online threats can escalate into physical harm.
Sheerah Escudero, whose brother was found dead in 2017 with his head wrapped in packaging tape at the height of the bloody crackdown, was among the complainants.
Escudero said people on social media had accused her of being a liar and a drug addict, with some even sending personal messages telling her she deserved to be killed and beheaded.
“We are just calling for justice, but they are twisting our narratives and accusing us of spreading fake news,” an emotional Escudero said.
