Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre (left), Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong (PPAB)

House Assistant Majority Leaders Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong and Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre can't help but recall three cases of killings during former president Rodrigo Duterte's drug war that have come to symbiloze its brutal nature.

The two ranking solons were referring to the cases of Kian Loyd delos Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz, and Reynaldo "Kulot" de Guzman, who were all reportedly killed in 2017, or within the first year of Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

On Tuesday, Duterte was arrested in connection with his crimes against humanity charge before the International Criminal Court (ICC). He has since been flown to The Hague, where the ICC is based.

"In 2017, Kian, a 17-year-old Grade 11 student, was dragged into a dark alley in Caloocan. He was just 17, a student with his whole life ahead of him," Adiong and Acidre said in a joint statement.

"Witnesses heard him cry out, ‘Tama na po! May test pa ako bukas! (Enough please! I still have a test tomorrow!) But his pleas fell on deaf ears. The police claimed he was a drug runner, that he fought back. But CCTV (closed circuit television) footage told the real story—Kian was murdered, executed while unarmed," they said.

"His lifeless body was left in the mud, a bullet lodged in his head. And when his family demanded justice, they were met with threats,” they added.

Regarding Arnaiz, the House leaders recalled: "He was 19, a former UP student, a boy full of dreams. In 2017, he left his home in Cainta, Rizal, reportedly to buy snacks. He never returned."

"After 10 days, his body was found in a morgue in Caloocan, riddled with gunshot wounds. The police claimed he attempted to rob a taxi driver and fired at officers, but forensic evidence told a different story—Carl had been tortured, handcuffed, and shot while on his knees. He was not a criminal. He was a son, a friend, a young man with a future,” the solons said.

Adiong and Acidre noted that De Guzman--the youngest among the three victims at only 14 years old--disappeared at the same time as Carl.

“Days later, his body was found floating in a creek in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, stabbed multiple times. What justification could there be for such a brutal death? What crime did he commit that warranted such inhumanity? None. Kulot was another casualty of a war that showed no mercy to the young and the poor,” they said.

The two House leaders underscored that in most of these cases, no due process was ever afforded to the victims.

"They were killed point-blank. They were accused, tried, and sentenced in a matter of seconds—not by a court, but by a bullet," the majority congressmen said.

“And now, as Duterte is taken into custody, he is being given all the due process that international law provides,” they pointed out.

“The same man who mocked human rights, who laughed at the idea of trials, is now afforded every legal protection available under international justice mechanisms. And yet, even in detention, his allies want to shield him from accountability. But justice cannot be selective,” they further said.