Corpus Juris
The “aswangs” on Duterte’s drug war
Atty. Dennis Gorecho
“If you destroy my country, I will kill you.” words uttered by former President Rodrigo Duterte Duterte on May 31, 2016.
The documentary film called “Aswang” was recently screened again that coincided with the arrest of President Duterte in relation to the charges of murder as a crime against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC),
Philippine folklore is filled with mythical and mysterious beings, including scary monsters like the Aswangs that gave us many sleepless nights.
The Aswang is the Philippines’ most famous carnivorous monster, a boogeyman-like predatory figure in local folklore who preys on humans.
Aswang is an umbrella term for an entire family of vampiric and malevolent spirits that suck blood, eat human flesh and also shape-shift as feral dogs, wild pigs, bats, or crow-like birds when hunting,
The witch, the were-beast, the bloodsucker, the corpse-eater, as well as the flying torsos (manananggal) or winged monster who sucks unborn children out of pregnant women, are some of the types of aswangs in Philippine folklore wrapped in one terrifying package.
In the 2019 documentary film “Aswang”, the ferocious vampiric, shape-shifting monster metamorphoses into the perpetrators of the war on drugs and their parallel abilities to stir palpable fear amongst their prey.
The film directed by Alyx Ayn Arumpac utilized the aswang not just as a folkloric monster but as a creation for fear-mongering that simulates its character – disguised and clandestine in food hunting prioritizing the poor at the bottom of the food chain.
“Aswang” follows a group of people entangled in the similar fate of being witnesses to the struggles of the extrajudicial killing (EJK) victims and exposing how their lives have changed during the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs for its first two years.
As known and suspected drug users are gunned down with alarming regularity, the film paints a grim but compassionate picture of present-day life on Manila’s exceedingly mean streets when losing their loved ones became an everyday occurrence for the poor.
The film touched upon “financial justice” wherein a person’s social standing determines whether they end up dead on a sidewalk, and how the poor become easy targets because they do not have the means to pay for the cost of justice — a cruel reality that many victims continue to face.
On March 12, 2025, Duterte was surrendered to the custody of the ICC.
On March 14, 2025, Duterte appeared before the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber who verified his identity and informed him of the crimes he is alleged to have committed.
He was arrested by the Philippine authorities in accordance with an arrest warrant issued by the Chamber for charges of murder as a crime against humanity allegedly committed in the Philippines between November 1, 2011 and March 18, 2019.
The ICC website noted that “the Chamber found that there was an attack directed against a civilian population pursuant to an organizational policy while Duterte was the head of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), and pursuant to a State policy while he was the President of the Philippines. “
The Chamber also said that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that this attack was both widespread and systematic: the alleged attack took place over a period of several years and resulted in thousands of deaths.”
In the arrest warrant, the Chamber focused on a sample of alleged incidents to facilitate its analysis.
Concerning Duterte’s alleged role as the head of the DDS and subsequently as the President of the Philippines, the Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that he, jointly with and through other persons, agreed to kill individuals they identified as suspected criminals or persons having criminal propensities, including but not limited to drug offenders, initially in Davao and subsequently throughout the country.
The Philippines had been a member of the ICC since November 1, 2011, but in 2018 gave a notice of withdrawal that took effect on March 17, 2019.
The Supreme Court has ruled on July 2021 that Duterte cannot invoke the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute to skirt the ICC investigation as it cited the Rome Statute’s provision that the exit does not affect criminal proceedings pertaining to acts that occurred when a country was still a state party.
The Philippine government has officially acknowledged 6,248 deaths due to the anti-drug campaign as of May 31, 2022. But human rights activists say the real toll of the crackdown was far greater, with thousands of urban and poor drug users, many placed on official “watch lists”, killed in mysterious circumstances.
Retired ICC Judge Raul Pangalangan ( from July 13, 2015 to March 2021) was my professor from University of Philippines College of Law,
The hearing on the confirmation of charges is set on September 23, 2025.
(Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0908-8665786.)