{"id":151876,"date":"2018-02-09T03:09:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T08:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=151876"},"modified":"2018-02-09T03:09:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T08:09:40","slug":"duterte-unfazed-by-iccs-preliminary-investigation-vs-him-ph-drug-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/09\/duterte-unfazed-by-iccs-preliminary-investigation-vs-him-ph-drug-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte unfazed by ICC’s preliminary investigation vs him, PH drug war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte sings the Philippine National Anthem during the establishment of the TienDA Para sa mga Bayani at Camp General Manuel Yan in Mawab Sr. in Mawab Compostela Valley Province on January 22, 2018. Also in the photo are Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pi\u00f1ol, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorezana and Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Rey Guerrero. (Photo by Richard Madelo\/Presidential Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said on Friday that President Rodrigo Duterte remains unfazed despite the decision of The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) to conduct preliminary examination on the alleged summary executions related to President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s campaign to suppress the narcotics problem in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala, wala iyan.<\/em> And even the President is not even affected by it. Sinasabi niya, ”di sige tuluyan nila ako.<\/em> Ako pa mismo ang mag-aabugado sa sarili ko<\/em> [Nothing, it\u2019s nothing. And even the President is not affected by it. He is saying, ‘go investigate me. I will serve as my own lawyer’],\u201d Panelo said in a radio interview.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the ICC is unable to take jurisdiction of the case against the President as Philippine courts are completely functioning and have taken on cases against offending state forces involved in the drug war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is, mayroong<\/em> congressional inquiry iyan \u2018di ba, sa Senado. Mayroong imbestigasyon ang<\/em> PNP (Philippine National Police), mayroong mga inihabla na sa hukuman. Kumbaga, nagpa-<\/em>function ang gobyerno. Papasok lang sila kung walang ginagawa ang gobyerno at inutil na gawin ang dapat na gawin nito<\/em> [The fact is, it has a congressional inquiry, in the Senate. There is an investigation from the PNP, there are (people) charged in the courts. It\u2019s like, they will only come in when the government is not doing anything and is stupid in doing what it is assigned to do],\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the Palace also expressed confidence on the ICC’s move, saying that the President welcomes the preliminary examination as he\u00a0is \u201csick and tired\u201d of being accused of crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

[READ:\u00a0ICC to conduct \u2018preliminary examination\u2019 vs. Duterte, PH war on drugs]<\/a><\/p>\n

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

He added 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

The examination stemmed from a complaint filed against President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 other government officials before the ICC, where Duterte was tagged as a \u201cmass murderer.\u201d The complaint also seeks to bring a suit against Duterte for \u201cthe terrifying and gruesome situation of continuing mass murder in the Philippines.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April 2017, lawyer Jude Sabio, counsel of hitman Edgar Matobato asked ICC to institute legal proceedings against the president over his alleged involvement in the so-called Davao Death Squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said on Friday that President Rodrigo Duterte remains unfazed despite the decision of The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":148701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[41254,46209,13135,46172],"class_list":["post-151876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-chief-presidential-legal-counsel-salvador-panelo","tag-ph-drug-war","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","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\/151876","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=151876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}