As international legal pressure mounts, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his former police chief, Senator Ronald 'Bato' dela Rosa, find themselves facing an intensifying global reckoning. With the Supreme Court of the Philippines rejecting appeals to halt an arrest order, dela Rosa is currently a fugitive, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) is moving closer to prosecuting both men for crimes against humanity. At the heart of these proceedings are the staggering human costs of "Operation Plan Double Barrel," a brutal anti-narcotics campaign that left thousands dead and drew widespread international condemnation for its systematic violence.

While official rhetoric often painted these deaths as necessary casualties of a drug war, a closer look at the victims reveals a heartbreaking reality: many were children caught in the crossfire. From three-year-old Myca Ulpina, who was allegedly used as a human shield, to seventeen-year-old Kian Lloyd de los Santos, whose execution was chillingly captured on CCTV, these lives represent a generation lost to state-sanctioned violence. The ICC’s case highlights how these killings were not isolated accidents, but part of a widespread policy where police were encouraged to use lethal force under the guise that suspects "fought back." For the families left behind, the impending trials at The Hague serve as a long-awaited, albeit difficult, path toward justice for children who were never meant to be part of any war.