JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday challenged the International Criminal Court to investigate the operations of drug cartels in the country instead of focusing on the government’s anti-illegal drug war campaign.
In an ambush interview with reporters, Remulla said drug cartels are the ones destroying society and the anti-drug war campaign is intended to address the problem.
“If the ICC really wants to conduct an investigation, why not focus on drug cartels because they are destroying our country. That is why we have a drug war,” he said.
He said investigating and prosecuting drug cartels should be ICC’s priority considering its decision to proceed with the investigation into the country’s illegal drug problem.
Why is the ICC not investigating them? Why is it that they did not investigate syndicates involved in the trafficking of women and children?,” the DOJ chief pointed out.
Remulla earlier warned the ICC “not to monkey around with our legal system” as he maintained that the country’s legal system is functioning.
He noted that is no mechanism in the Rome Statute by which the ICC can send their investigators to the country, more so since the Philippines has a fully functioning justice system.
He noted that 290 cases of deaths due associated with the drug war are either under investigation and prosecution, debunking the ICC and government critics’ claim that the government has not done enough to address the issue of deaths related to the anti-illegal drug campaign.
Remulla said the government would be filing its last pleading before the ICC to explain how the country’s judicial system is functioning.
The government through its chief counsel, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra earlier asked the ICC to set aside its Pre-Trial Chamber’s January 26 decision allowing the resumption of its probe into the bloody anti-illegal drug campaign during the term of former President Duterte.
The government is insisting that the ICC has lost jurisdiction over the country after Duterte decided to withdraw its membership in 2019
The government said the “decision to withdraw is the Philippines’ principled stand against those who politicize and weaponize human rights, even as its independent and well-functioning organs and agencies continue to exercise jurisdiction over complaints, issues, problems and concerns arising from its efforts to protect the people.”