MALACAÑANG dismissed as a “sham decision” and “useless piece of propaganda” the International Peoples’ Tribunal’s (IPT) verdict that President Duterte is “guilty” of human rights violations.
Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque, Jr. also belittled those who sat in the IPT as “just leftists who happened to be white” and “sympathetic to the Philippine left.”
Roque, a human rights lawyer and international law professor, noted that even if the decision is not an official one, it could have a bearing depending on the stature of the individuals sitting there.
“That’s a sham decision. It has no official sanction. The validity of the findings will depend on the credibility of the tribunals – I’m in this field of law,” Roque said in a Palace press briefing. “I do not know who sat there. They appear to be a propaganda body of the international left, if not the—and therefore we set it aside as being a useless piece of propaganda against the government.”
The tribunal issued its verdict on Wednesday after conducting open and public tribunal sessions last September 18 and 19 in Brussels, Belgium.
However, the tribunal also noted in its verdict that the defendants nor their counsel or representative notified the tribunal whether, nor in what manner, do they intend to participate in the proceedings despite notice.
“As such, the defendants were deemed to have waived their right to present evidence in their defense and this Tribunal was compelled to proceed and, given the importance and urgency of the matter, deliberated forthwith and came up with this Initial Verdict on the basis of the evidence presented by the Complainants and in consonance with the Rules of Procedure,” read the copy of the IPT verdict.
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers defended the credibility of IPT, saying it is a “legitimate venue and alternative or parallel platform initiated by the people to seek redress when existing traditional institutions and remedies are either limited, inadequate, unavailing or even skewed.”
NUPL said in a statement that IPT follows and respects due process where defendants are duly notified and given an adequate opportunity to participate and defend themselves.
Earlier, NUPL also lodged a complaint at the International Criminal Court charging the President with Crimes against Humanity.
The group insisted that the 4,410 to as many as 23,000 deaths under the administration’s Oplan Double Barrel and its succeeding versions and the President’s pronouncements inciting the killings “are more than enough proof” of the widespread and systematic attacks against civilians.