PH and Thai drug wars: Same-same

IN a speech in Vienna last March, former senator and justice secretary Leila de Lima challenged President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to "do something more" about the war on drugs. She called the drug war a dismal "failure." De Lima was jailed for seven years under the Duterte regime, on trumped-up drug charges.

De Lima's remarks came on the heels of the move of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the abuses in former president Rodrigo Duterte's controversial war on drugs. The ICC announced that it was looking for Filipino and Cebuano translators. Some observers, including former senator Antonio Trillanes, saw this as a sign that the body was moving to the next stage of its investigation.