{"id":151764,"date":"2018-02-08T05:06:58","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T10:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=151764"},"modified":"2018-02-08T07:19:47","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T12:19:47","slug":"icc-to-conduct-preliminary-examination-vs-duterte-ph-war-on-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/08\/icc-to-conduct-preliminary-examination-vs-duterte-ph-war-on-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC to conduct ‘preliminary examination’ vs. Duterte, PH war on drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte prepares to receive Former Poland President Lech Walesa as the latter paid a courtesy call on the President at Malaca\u00f1an Palace on January 23, 2018. TOTO LOZANO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to conduct its preliminary examination on the alleged summary executions related to President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s campaign to suppress the narcotics problem in the Philippines, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque confirmed on Thursday, February 8 in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission in The Hague was informed that the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is opening a preliminary examination on the alleged acts associated with the campaign against illegal drugs covering the period of July 2016,\u201d Roque said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

The spokesman, however, clarified that the intent of preliminary examination is to determine whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, and is different from the preliminary investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe office of the prosecutor is merely exercising his mandate to determine whether there is reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into a situation pursuant to the criteria in the Rome Statute namely jurisdiction, admissibility and interest of justice,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

In April 2017, lawyer Jude Sabio, counsel of hitman Edgar Matobato, filed a complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 other government officials before the ICC, accusing Duterte of being a “mass murderer,” and to bring a suit against Duterte for “the terrifying and gruesome situation of continuing mass murder in the Philippines.”<\/p>\n

Sabio also asked ICC to institute legal proceedings against the president over his involvement in the so-called Davao Death Squad.<\/p>\n

In the same year, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano filed a supplemental communication against Duterte and other officials before ICC.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, said that the administration\u2019s war contra illegal drugs are lawful and a sovereign act, saying that the investigation would be a \u201cwaste of time and resources\u201d for the court.<\/p>\n

He added that the chief executive welcomes the preliminary examination as he\u00a0is \u201csick and tired\u201d of being accused of crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the war against drug is a lawful, legitimate police operation, it cannot be characterized as an attack against civilian populations because they are civilians,\u201d Roque pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe view of course this decision of the prosecutor as the waste of the court\u2019s time and resources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President has said that he also welcomes this preliminary examination because he\u2019s sick and tired of being accused of the commission of crimes against humanity,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

According to Roque, Duterte said that the ICC\u2019s launching of the preliminary examination is an opportunity to prove that the case is not subject to the court\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity for him to prove that this is not subject to the court\u2019s jurisdiction because of both complementarity that domestic courts; and the fact that we have a domestic international humanitarian law statute in our jurisdiction are reasons enough for the court not to exercise jurisdiction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte has been hurled with numerous of accusations of violating human rights due to his iron-fist take against illegal drugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to conduct its preliminary examination on the alleged summary executions related to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":148513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[12253,46173,31449,46172],"class_list":["post-151764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-war-on-drugs","tag-preliminary-examination","tag-presidential-spokesperson-harry-roque","tag-the-hague-based-international-criminal-court-icc","mauthors-michealina-vallarta-david","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}