{"id":152143,"date":"2018-02-11T01:25:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T06:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=152143"},"modified":"2018-02-11T01:25:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T06:25:15","slug":"duterte-unfazed-by-icc-probe-on-ph-drug-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/11\/duterte-unfazed-by-icc-probe-on-ph-drug-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte unfazed by ICC probe on PH drug war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: If the International Criminal Court (ICC) finds him guilty of crimes against humanity in the Philippines, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said he would rather die by firing squad than go to prison. (Photo by Karl Norman Alonzo\/Presidential Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0— If the International Criminal Court (ICC) finds him guilty of crimes against humanity in the Philippines, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said he would rather die by firing squad than go to prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you convict me, find a country that promotes death penalty and kill me by a firing squad. I would be very happy to face them,\u201d Duterte dared ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda during a Manila Times forum on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Duterte said it would be a \u201cdistinct honor\u201d for him to die like Philippine national hero Jose Rizal who was killed in defiance of the Spaniards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m no Rizal. I am not bright as Rizal. But I would like just to imitate the way Rizal died,\u201d he added, adding that he would even curse them before they pull the trigger.<\/p>\n

Duterte said as President, he vowed to \u201cpreserve the Republic of the Philippines and protect the Filipino people\u201d and if ordering the killing of criminals was wrong, he was ready to face death.<\/p>\n

He made this remark after Bensoud, on Thursday, said she was opening a preliminary examination into alleged extrajudicial killings in the country acting on the \u201ccommunication\u201d filed by lawyer Jude Sabio in April 2017.<\/p>\n

Sabio is the lawyer of confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, who claimed the existence of a so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) which killed suspected drug addicts, pushers, and other criminals during Duterte\u2019s term as mayor.<\/p>\n

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano also filed a separate complaint against Duterte’s drug war before the ICC.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s all politics\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, questioned Bensoud\u2019s decision to examine the Philippines first “when there were killings all over the world happening everyday”.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot see the reason why I\u2019m the first head of state to be chosen by these idiots when there are so many things (happening),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He, however, said that he was told beforehand that the examination will soon take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew in advance that they were doing it. Problem is this case, from the looks of it, it\u2019s all politics,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have this transmittal. I cannot reveal it but I can tell you now. Three days after, they were discussing. I had already, I was already listening to the tapes of their conversation. It was provided by me by another country but the conversation was in Philippines and New York,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte also insisted that the ICC treaty provisions in the Rome Statute that dealt with extrajudicial killings could not be implemented in the Philippines because they were not published in the country as required by law.<\/p>\n

He said because of this, he could not be imprisoned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you say, the treaty shall form part of the laws of the land. In this city, in this country, alam ninyo \u2018yan, every penal or punitive measure must be published in the Official Gazette. Tinanong ko ang Official Gazette, \u2018Pinublish ba ninyo? Kasi makukulong ako eh.\u2019 That is required — without that, you denied me my due process (\u201cWhen you say, the treaty shall form part of the laws of the land. In this city, in this country, you know, every penal or punitive measure must be published in the Official Gazette. I asked the Official Gazette, \u2018Did you publish it? Because I\u2019ll be imprisoned.\u2019 That is required–without that, you denied me my due process),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaano mo ako makukulong ngayon (How will I be imprisoned now)? Because certainly, a treaty cannot be more powerful than a Constitution, it\u2019s just an agreement,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— If the International Criminal Court (ICC) finds him guilty of crimes against humanity in the Philippines, President Rodrigo R. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":149093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[12524,3891,2444],"class_list":["post-152143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-drug-war","tag-icc","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152143","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=152143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}