The announcement yesterday that the tyrant Duterte will be appointed to head Marcos Junior’s “drug war” is a direct affront to the Filipino people, especially to the tens of thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings in the widespread campaign of murder carried out by police forces and state-funded armed vigilante groups.

For six years, Duterte carried out a sham drug war in which he used the country’s police forces to make all drug lords kneel before him as their supreme lord and protector. He unleashed and ordered the police to carry out widespread killings with impunity. At least 30,000 people, mostly small-time street peddlers and users in urban poor communities were killed in the campaign of murder. Their families and loved-ones, together with various sectors, demand justice.

For having ordered the killing of tens of thousands in his sham drug war, Duterte must be made to pay for all his crimes. He must face the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) where he is charged with crimes against humanity collectively filed by victims of his campaign of killings since 2016.

If Duterte is appointed head of the government’s “anti-drug” war campaign, Marcos’ own hands will be covered with the blood of the tens of thousands of victims of murder and torture, and will be an accomplice in covering-up Duterte’s crimes and effort to evade just punishment.