Manila, Philippines – It has been almost eight years since brothers Crisanto and Juan Carlos disappeared one morning in Quezon City, a sprawling northern district of Metro Manila.
Within a day, their lifeless bodies were discovered riddled with bullets. But the pain of their brutal killing has continued to haunt their mother, Llore Pasco, over all these years.
On that morning in May 2017, Crisanto, a 34-year-old father of four, had left home early to pick up a licence to work as a private security guard. Not long after, Juan Carlos, 31, a part-time utility bill collector, would follow his brother out of their home.
They would never come back.
The day after their disappearance, their mother told Al Jazeera how she and other relatives were shocked to learn from a television news report that her two sons had been killed, accused by police of robbery. It took a full week and a hefty $1,500 fee for Pasco to recover their bodies from the morgue.
Their funerals were followed by years of agony as Pasco lived without hope for justice ever being done.
So on hearing the news this week of the arrest of the country’s former President Rodrigo Duterte over his brutal war on drugs, she was overcome with emotion.
“I felt so nervous and scared, but also excited,” said Pasco, a part-time food vendor and massage therapist.
“My eyes were filled with tears. At long last, after so many years of waiting, it’s happening. This is it,” she told Al Jazeera.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued the arrest warrant for Duterte, was her one last hope for justice, said Pasco, a leading member of Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a group of mothers and wives of those killed in the country’s drug war.
Pasco told how she had “little to no hope” of finding justice for the killing of her sons in the Philippines.
On Tuesday, the international police organisation (Interpol) served the ICC’s warrant against Duterte at Manila airport, on charges of “crimes against humanity” related to thousands of killings of suspected drug users and dealers during his time in power.
Later the same day, the government of the Philippines allowed Duterte to be flown to The Hague-based international court.
According to police records, more than 7,000 people were killed in official antidrug operations ordered by Duterte while he was in office from 2016 to 2022.
Human rights groups say the actual number of killings could be closer to 30,000, including those who were killed by gunmen, some of whom later turned out to be undercover police officers.
Duterte arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday afternoon, where he was officially handed over to the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Amid criticism and protest from Duterte’s supporters, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the surprise arrest was in compliance with his country’s “commitments to Interpol”.
Christine Pascual was at work in a hair salon when she heard the news about Duterte’s arrest.
“My client was asking me why I was crying while I was doing her hair,” Pascual told Al Jazeera, adding that memories of her late son, 17-year-old Joshua Pascual Laxamana, came rushing back at that moment.
“I went through so much anguish and pain from the time Joshua was killed until the time I started demanding justice for his death,” she said.
Laxamana, a professional online gamer, was on his way home from a tournament in the northern Philippines when he was shot and killed by police.
Records showed that he allegedly fired shots at officers and tried to flee on a motorcycle. But Laxamana did not know how to drive a motorcycle and his family have always maintained that he never used drugs or handled weapons, as the police claimed.
“For years, we’ve been very disappointed that nothing’s happening about my son’s case and other cases of extrajudicial killings,” Pascual said.
“So we were very surprised to hear the news about Duterte’s arrest. We are very happy that now he will have to face us in court,” she said, while also acknowledging that the two police officers involved in her son’s death would likely never be prosecuted.
“My family will never be the same because Joshua is now gone,” she added.
‘Unbearable pain’
Luzviminda Siapo, the mother of another victim of the war on drugs, said she felt a sense of relief after learning that Duterte has been taken to The Hague.
“Seeing Duterte being arrested and taken to prison at The Hague, I feel like I have already attained a little amount of justice,” Siapo told Al Jazeera.
“For all that he has done, and for all the deaths that he caused, I wonder what he will reap in return?”
Duterte should also be thankful that he has only been arrested and will be accorded due process at the ICC – something that was denied to her slain son, Siapo said.
Her son, Raymart Siapo, was just 19 when he was abducted and shot twice in the head by several masked gunmen. His body was left in a village near Manila Bay.
According to news reports at the time, Raymart had a dispute with a neighbour that resulted in false accusations being made to authorities that the teenager was involved in selling marijuana.
A day after the damning accusation was made, unknown suspects came looking for Raymart, forcing him onto a motorcycle and taking him to an adjacent neighbourhood, where he was ordered to get off and run for his life.
Born with deformed feet, the teenager did not get far when the gunmen proceeded to shoot him dead.
“I feel an unbearable pain losing a child to the drug war,” Siapo told Al Jazeera.
Children as ‘collateral damage’
Family members of others killed in the drug war came together on Wednesday, during a news conference organised by the Rise Up group and the National Union of People’s Lawyers.
At the event, Emily Soriano, the mother of a slain 15-year-old son, Angelito, said that while she welcomed Duterte’s arrest, she wanted others prosecuted and jailed, including those who gave direct orders to carry out the police operation that resulted in the death of her child.
Soriano singled out Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who once served as the chief police enforcer during Duterte’s drug war.
Dela Rosa has repeatedly defended the legality of Duterte’s war on drugs. He once famously quipped that children killed in the crossfire during police operations were “collateral damage”, adding that “sh** happens”.
Soriano said that dela Rosa and other police officers are just as guilty as Duterte.
“Good for Duterte that he is being accorded due process. He’s still enjoying his bed,” she said between tears.
“What about my son who was killed? My son’s remains have been rotting in the cemetery for more than eight years now.”
Soriano insisted that her son was not a drug user and that he happened to be at a house targeted by authorities, which led to his killing.
During that operation, six other people were killed, including two other teenagers and a pregnant woman.
“It’s been a very painful experience to lose a son who is not really a drug addict. There have been so many who jumped to conclusions that they were addicted to drugs. But they do not know the truth,” Soriano said.
Duterte’s antidrug policy was also a war against the poor, she added.
Late on Wednesday at The Hague, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan hailed the arrest of Duterte, noting that it “means a lot to the victims” and proves that “international law is not as weak as some may think”.
“When we come together and build partnerships, the rule of law can prevail, warrants can be executed,” Khan said.
Khan also said that his office has been investigating the situation in the Philippines for some years, adding that the allegations of crimes against humanity also cover those cases committed before Duterte was elected president in 2016 and while he was still the mayor of the southern city of Davao.
Khan also stressed that despite his arrest, “Mister Duterte is presumed innocent”.
