Joselito Malig

Article (news)

ABS-CBN News

<p>MANILA - Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano on Saturday claimed that the Duterte administration&#x27;s bloody war on illegal drugs was a &quot;pro-life campaign&quot;.</p><p>&quot;Ang campaign against drugs is a human rights campaign. It&#x27;s a pro-life campaign, dahil pumapatay ang drugs,&quot; Cayetano said in a Facebook live video Saturday.</p><p>Cayetano, who served as Foreign Affairs Secretary and House Speaker during the Duterte administration, said illegal drugs &quot;really destroys families and communities.&quot;</p><p>&quot;At kung titignan nyo yung statistics, grabe talaga,&quot; said Cayetano, without citing specific data and numbers on drugs-related crimes.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re talking about the worst kind of murder, the worst kind of rape, the worst kind of stealing, cheating, lying, etc,&quot; he said. &quot;So, for many of those who were on the side of declaring war on drugs, it was not about extrajudicial killing because we do not excuse that.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Because ang sinasabi nga natin, you have to do it the right way. The other side of the coin naman is yung nagsasabing it was a front at maraming pinatay na inosente o kaya pag-addict, imbis na ipaggamot or instead of daling sa rehab, pinapatay,&quot; Cayetano said.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/02/26/17/cayetano-to-duterte-relaunch-drug-war">Cayetano to Duterte: Relaunch drug war</a></div><p>&quot;So, kung nandun ka sa drug war, sasabihin mo, God is on our side kasi ayaw ni Lord ng drugs. Kung nandun ka naman sa side na extrajudicial killing yan, of course, God will be for the right of life. Ngayon, ang question kasi, was it a policy na magkaroon ng extrajudicial killing or not? So, I won&#x27;t go into the merits or demerits of those arguments,&quot; he said.</p><p>Official government data during the administration of then President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged 6,252 deaths in its anti-drug operations. </p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/05/31/22/pdea-drug-war-also-focused-on-rehab-over-6200-killed-during-ops">War on drugs: Over 6,200 killed during operations, says PDEA</a></div><p>ABS-CBN research showed over 7,000 individuals killed during Duterte&#x27;s drug war, while human rights groups, the United Nations, and International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators estimate that death toll ranged between 12,000 and 30,000 victims.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/06/01/22/over-7000-deaths-in-6-years-of-dutertes-drug-war-research">War on drugs: ABS-CBN research shows over 7,000 individuals killed in past 6 years</a></div><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/10/21/21/6000-more-drug-war-deaths-up-for-review">Thousands more drug war killings up for review</a></div><p>Duterte was arrested in 2025 on orders of the International Criminal Court and is facing trial for crimes against humanity in connection with thousands of alleged summary executions during his administration&#x27;s war on drugs.  </p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/4/28/icc-constitutes-trial-chamber-for-rodrigo-duterte-case-1621">ICC constitutes trial chamber for Rodrigo Duterte case</a></div><p>An ICC arrest warrant has also been issued against Duterte&#x27;s former police chief, <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/5/22/pnp-deploys-tracker-teams-to-arrest-dela-rosa-0939">Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa</a>, on similar charges.</p><p>The National Bureau of Investigation said <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/5/23/nbi-ready-for-more-icc-warrants-says-dela-rosa-still-in-ph-1306">more ICC arrest warrants</a> in connection with the drug war may be issued soon.  </p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5_g2F8uUX2E?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>"Ang campaign against drugs is a human rights campaign. It's a pro-life campaign, dahil pumapatay ang drugs," Cayetano said in a Facebook live video Saturday.</p>

"Ang campaign against drugs is a human rights campaign. It's a pro-life campaign, dahil pumapatay ang drugs," Cayetano said in a Facebook live video Saturday.

Cayetano on Duterte's war on drugs: 'It's a pro-life campaign'

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Cayetano on Duterte's war on drugs: 'It's a pro-life campaign'

Jojo Pasion Malig,

ABS-CBN News

Published May 23, 2026 06:15 PM PHT

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Updated May 24, 2026 10:19 AM PHT

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war on drugs

Rodrigo Duterte

Alan Peter Cayetano

ICC

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