Sawt Falasteen - Families of Duterte's drug war victims eye Hague hearing with hope

Accused of dealing drugs, 30-year-old Joewarski Pajo was shot dead while playing a game on his phone, one of thousands of extrajudicial killings alleged to have taken place under former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.

A hearing begins at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday that will determine whether Duterte will stand trial over at least 76 of those deaths.

"This hearing is what we have been waiting for," Father Flavie Villanueva said after saying a prayer over Joewarski's remains, the 126th body his non-profit group has exhumed as potential evidence.

"It is important that (Duterte) faces the court in person, physically, for us to see if there is remorse on his part," said Villanueva, a fierce critic of the former president's so-called drug war.

However, the hope that Duterte would appear in person disappeared on Friday when ICC judges ruled that the octogenarian could waive his right to attend the hearing.

"I am old, tired, and frail," Duterte had said in a filing making the request days earlier.

Villanueva called Duterte's request cowardly when reached on Thursday, noting the former president had already been declared fit to stand trial.

"Accountability is something this person has no concept of," he said.

- 'They are not God' -

At a Manila coffee shop staffed by family members of those killed in the drug war, three employees told AFP they believed justice would not have been possible in the Philippines.

"No one in the Philippines can lay hands on Duterte, much less file cases against him," said Lydjay Acopio, whose three-year-old daughter Myca was killed in a police raid on the home she shared with her father.

Fellow barista Rosalie Saludo agreed: "As long as his daughter (Vice President Sara Duterte) is in office, as long as his allies are in office, he can still find a way to twist and distort justice."

Sara Duterte announced her 2028 presidential candidacy on Wednesday.

Mary Grace Garganta, manager of the coffee shop, said she had been forced to move after police without a warrant shot and killed her father in 2016. She was afraid of what might happen to family members "now that I'm speaking up".

"I won't deny that my father was involved in drugs, but that was not a reason to kill him," she said.

"They are not God to take away a life."

- 'Things were better' -

The number of Filipinos who believe Duterte should be tried at the ICC has slipped to 44 percent, a November survey by Manila-based WR Numero showed, down from 62 percent in April.

While the new numbers still indicate a shift from the historically high approval rates he enjoyed in office, a significant percentage of his countrymen maintain Duterte did nothing wrong.

"If Duterte committed a wrongdoing... he only did it for the good of the country," Jovel Manzano, 34, told AFP on a busy Manila street this week.

"What's the point of our courts here if we're always relying on other countries?" he said of the looming ICC hearing.

"If a Filipino commits a crime, he should be tried here," he said.

Jessa Cangayaw, a 30-year-old massage therapist, said she had no qualms about Duterte's crackdown, provided those being killed were "bad people".

"Things were better then than they are now," she said, adding that she felt less safe when walking home.

But Sheerah Escudero, whose teenage brother's bullet-riddled body was found in 2017, said Monday's hearing marked a step towards "accountability".

"We have a broken judicial system," the 28-year-old told reporters this week, saying Philippine authorities had mounted "no credible investigation" into the allegations against Duterte.

"It has been dark for a very long time, but now we are seeing the light."

L.Hussein--SF-PST