MANILA: Family members of people killed during former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs demanded an investigation Friday into what they say has been a flood of online threats since his arrest.
Duterte was detained on March 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.
Following Duterte’s arrest, AFP fact-checkers saw dozens of online posts by his supporters targeting the families of drug war victims, seeking to discredit their accounts of extrajudicial killings.
In one Facebook post, a photo of a drug war widow holding a portrait of her late husband was altered to claim she was lying about her husband’s death.
Conti said they have identified specific pro-Duterte vloggers and pages as responsible for the disinformation that fueled the online attacks.
She added the online harassment seemed systematic based on the dates and time stamps, but noted they have yet to determine if these were funded by the Duterte camp.
“But definitely, the sentiments are pro-Duterte,” Conti said.
The complainants held a meeting with NBI officials who said they would assign an agent to look into their complaints.
While no timeline for an investigation has been set, Conti said once the report is completed, they will study the possibility of filing libel or civil cases.
