Duterte shrugs off planned ICC probe vs. drug war

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has merely brushed aside the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) request for judicial authorization to investigate his administration’s anti-narcotics drive, Malacañang said on Thursday.

“You know, he (Duterte) shrugged off,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in an online presser.

Fatou Bensouda, whose term as ICC prosecutor ended on Tuesday, has sought authorization from the court’s pre-trial chamber to allow the conduct of an investigation into the alleged crime against humanity committed during the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs.

Bensouda said there is a “reasonable” basis to believe that “the crime against humanity of murder was committed from at least 1 July 2016 to 16 March 2019 in the context of the Philippine government’s war on drug’s campaign.”

She added that police and other government officials “planned, ordered, and sometimes directly perpetrated extrajudicial killings.”

Mere hearsay

Roque said Duterte was unfazed by ICC’s stance that is based on “mere hearsay.”

Duterte, he added, was confident that the investigation against his drug war would not prosper, considering that ICC relied on reports from local media outlets such as ABS-CBN, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Rappler.

“After we saw the 52-page decision, knowing that they were citing Rappler and ABS-CBN and Inquirer, eh medyo napayapa na po kami (we have felt relaxed) because, in law, all these newspaper accounts are mere hearsay,” Roque said.

Roque said ICC could not launch a probe on the ground of “hearsay evidence.”

“The opinion, after checking the sources, media sources, kasi (because) all lawyers know, that will not stand in court. And since you need the judicial authorization to proceed an investigation, lawyers know that you cannot start any proceedings on the basis of hearsay evidence,” he said.

‘No big deal’

Roque also dismissed as “no big deal” the ICC’s plan to pursue an inquiry into Duterte’s drug war.

He added that the Palace would let the Department of Justice (DOJ) look into the deaths associated with the government’s anti-narcotics campaign.

“So, it’s no big deal, and we will allow and let the DOJ do its job because that is really the obligation of the Philippine state to investigate, prosecute and punish if need be,” he said.

Roque also maintained that the ICC need not carry out an investigation, since the Philippines’ legal system is working.

“Gumagana po ang proseso ng pag-iimbestiga (The investigation process is working),” he said. “And the President has also repeated na suportado niya ang pulis kung legal ang ginagawa, pero kung labag sa batas, hindi po niya susuportahan (that he supports the police if their actions are legal, but if their actions violate the law, he will not support them).”

The Philippines cut ties with ICC after Bensouda pushed through with the preliminary examination into the drug campaign in February 2018.

It officially withdrew its membership from the ICC on March 17, 2019, or exactly a year after it revoked the Rome Statute that created the international court.

Duterte and other Philippine officials have repeatedly insisted that ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines since the Rome Statute was never published in a newspaper of general circulation or the Official Gazette.