SEVERAL youth groups supported the decision of the International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to probe alleged human rights violations in the implementation of the government’s war on drugs.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines said the campaign against illegal drugs unleashed “widespread violence.”

“It must be noted that the investigation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also saw a pattern of planting evidence by police officers, and two handguns with the same serial number also re-appeared in five different crime scenes,” it added.

The Guild said that the Duterte administration “will be remembered as an era in which state-manipulated information thrived, but the right to freedom of expression is also suppressed, and state propagandists served to misinform and miseducate the Filipino people.”

The Kabataan Partylist challenged Duterte to accept the investigation of the ICC.

“Huwag dapat ibalewala ni Pangulong Duterte ang ebidensiya na inilalatag na mismo sa harap niya. Hindi siya poon na higit pa sa batas at hindi na niya maaalpasan ang paniningil ng libo-libong biktima sa ilalim ng drug war, masaker ng magsasaka, crackdown sa aktibista at progresibong lider, at mas marami pang buhay na ninakaw ng kanyang kriminal na kapabayaan sa gitna ng pandemya,” the group said.

The ICC Office of the Prosecutor sought authorization to open an investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity committed under Duterte’s campaign against drugs.

However, Palace Spokesman Harry Roque said that Duterte will not cooperate with ICC as long as he is the president.