Fr. Picardal Exposed ‘Death Squad’ Killings Now Subject of ICC Probe

Carlos H. Conde
Senior Researcher, Asia Division
@carloshconde

Fr. Amado Picardal, a Redemptorist priest who exposed killings by the so-called Davao Death Squad in the Philippines, died on Wednesday at age 69. Colleagues said Father Picx, as he was known, died from cardiac arrest in Cebu province, where he had been living a life of solitude and silence as a hermit.

Picardal was one of the first to sound the alarm about extrajudicial killings in Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao in the late 1990s and 2000s. This was long before the International Criminal Court (ICC) would investigate killings committed during President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” as alleged crimes against humanity. Duterte, the longtime mayor of Davao City, was elected president in 2016 and modeled his abusive anti-drug campaign after Davao City’s.

Picardal was instrumental in helping the media and human rights organizations document the killings. The Coalition Against Summary Executions, which he helped found in 1999, played a key role in the research that led to Human Rights Watch’s 2009 report exposing the death squad. Picardal also assisted human rights groups submit information to the ICC.

Click the link to read complete article https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/30/filipino-priest-who-defied-duterte-passes-away?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Carlos H. Conde
Senior Researcher, Asia Division
@carloshconde