Complaints filed against Duterte, ex-cops at UN body

The families of labour organisers and activists who were killed in several simultaneous police operations in 2021 on Nov 8 filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee against former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte and two former officials of the Philippine National Police.

Ms Liezl Asuncion, wife of trade union leader Manny Asuncion, and Ms Rosenda Lemita, mother of activist Ana Marie Evangelista, filed separate complaints with the UN body after domestic legal remedies supposedly failed them.

The women's complaints accused Mr Duterte, former Philippine National Police chief Guillermo Eleazar and police colonel Lito Patay of violating the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the Philippines signed in 1966.

"We promise that we will not stop until Duterte and his 'Davao Boys' are held accountable for their crimes against the people," Ms Asuncion told reporters.

Col Patay was supposedly a part of the "Davao Boys", a group of police officers whom Mr Duterte summoned to Metro Manila at the height of his deadly war on drugs, for which he already faces charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court.

Also named in the complaints were 17 more police officers, who were mostly assigned to the Southern Luzon police command.