Malacañang has flatly rejected the move of an outgoing International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor to probe President Duterte for allegedly allowing crimes against humanity in the government’s war against illegal drugs for being “legally erroneous and politically motivated.”
In an online news briefing on Tuesday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque questioned the validity and the motive of the decision of Prosecutor Fatous Bensouda to seek authorization from the pre-trial chamber of the ICC to push through with the investigation against the President.
The case was filed by former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a known critic of Duterte, who handed over the case to Bensouda in 2017.
Roque claimed Bensouda decided to push through with the probe to just deflect criticism that she can only file charges against Africans to advance her political career.
“Good luck to their political career in her home state, but it should not be at the expense of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” Roque stressed.
The Palace spokesman insisted that the Philippine National Police (PNP) was never engaged in crimes against humanity since its members were not deliberately attacking civilians in its anti-illegal drugs campaign.
The civilians, who were hurt or have died as an offshoot of such operations, Roque said, were the “collateral damage” because the policeman were merely defending themselves against drug dealers.
No jurisdiction
The Palace official also said the ICC no longer has any jurisdiction over the country after it has withdrawn its membership in the international body on March 17, 2019.
“Everything that happened before the President took office and implemented [on] the war against drugs and everything that happened after 17 March of 2019 is clearly beyond the ratione temporis jurisdiction of the ICC,” Roque pointed out.
“We will not cooperate [with the investigation] since we are no longer a member [of the ICC],” he added.
Roque also cited the principle of “complementarity,” which states the ICC could only intervene in cases where states are unable or unwilling to prosecute.
He stressed the local courts are acting on the alleged drug-related killings from the ranks of the PNP.
“Because of complementarity, I am confident that the pre-trial chamber will reject the request for investigation,” Roque said.
He stressed that accepting such intervention from the ICC will be an insult to the country’s judicial system.
“That is an insult. We will be compared to countries like Darfur, which have no functioning government. We are not like that,” he pointed out.
No bearing
JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra, for his part, said the request of the Office of the ICC has no bearing on the Department of Justice (DOJ)-led panel’s ongoing review of more than a hundred cases where deaths occurred during anti-illegal drug operations.
“As far as the DOJ is concerned, such development has absolutely no effect on the ongoing work of the review panel on drug deaths, as well as on the Philippines-UN joint program on technical cooperation on human rights,” Guevarra told reporters.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar has earlier pledged full cooperation in the panel’s ongoing review.
In line with this, the PNP-Internal Affairs Service (IAS) has already submitted 53 cases to the panel for review.
These cases involve findings by the PNP-IAS of administrative liabilities on the conduct of police officers in anti-drug operations.
Aside from the PNP, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has opened its case files for review of the panel.
Guevarra said a total of 107 PDEA anti-drug operation cases where deaths occurred have been submitted for review by the panel. The panel intends to review a total of 5,655 anti-illegal drugs operations where deaths occurred.
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez