{"id":239414,"date":"2019-12-08T01:57:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T06:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=239414"},"modified":"2019-12-08T01:57:41","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T06:57:41","slug":"iccs-initial-review-of-drug-war-invalid-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/12\/08\/iccs-initial-review-of-drug-war-invalid-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC\u2019s initial review of drug war invalid: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo maintained that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines, which he said is an \u201cindependent\u201d country\u201d that has a working justice system. (File photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Malaca\u00f1ang on Saturday dismissed as \u201cutter disrespect\u201d the International Criminal Court\u2019s (ICC) insistence that it has jurisdiction to proceed with a preliminary examination of President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s anti-narcotics crackdown, despite the Philippines\u2019 withdrawal from the international tribunal.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo maintained that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines, which he said is an \u201cindependent\u201d country\u201d that has a working justice system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Philippines as an independent State, through its duly constituted authorities, must not be waylaid by any force, internal or external, in going about its task of serving and protecting the Filipino people,\u201d Panelo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny resort therefore to a foreign tribunal relative to the management of our country’s state policies is utter disrespect, and any complainant who does it who is a citizen of the Republic, is an infidel to the sovereign aspirations of this Republic,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He issued the statement after the ICC, in its \u201cpreliminary examination activities\u201d report for 2019, noted that it intends to conclude its initial review of Duterte\u2019s drug war by 2020 to determine the possible necessity to conduct a full-blown investigation into the Philippines\u2019 campaign against narcotics trade.<\/p>\n

The Philippines became a party to the Rome Statute, which creates the ICC, on Nov. 1, 2011.<\/p>\n

The country, however, officially cut ties with ICC on Mar. 17, 2019, exactly a year after Duterte submitted a formal notice of revocation of its membership from the international tribunal due to its \u201cbrazen display of ignorance of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ICC\u2019s preliminary examination of Duterte\u2019s drug war launched by prosecutor Fatou Bensouda pushed through in February 2018, as it noted that it has jurisdiction over the possible crimes perpetrated during the period the Philippines was a state party to the Rome Statute.<\/p>\n

The ICC\u2019s preliminary examination stemmed from a complaint lodged by lawyer Jude Sabio, accusing Duterte of committing crimes against humanity for the thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings of drug personalities since the drug war was waged on July 1, 2016 until Mar. 31, 2017.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the \u201cfalse allegations of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines \u201cdo not fall within the ICC\u2019s definition of crimes against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Government does not sanction nor condone any unlawful act resulting in the loss of lives. Neither does it allow any widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deaths occurring in the course of legitimate police operations come about because the criminal suspects subject of these law enforcement activities resort to violence that imperils the lives and limbs of the police officers,\u201d the Palace official added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said Bensouda should instead rule that the ICC has \u201cno jurisdiction\u201d over the Philippines and the international body’s preconditions for its exercise of jurisdiction \u201chave not been met.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said there was no need for the ICC to intervene, as it has to observe the \u201cprinciple of complementarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The principle of complementarity, as defined by ICC, states that the international court may only exercise jurisdiction where national legal systems fail to do so, including whether they purport to act but in reality are unwilling or unable to genuinely carry out proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe admissibility of any case before the ICC must also pass the test of complementarity, in that the Philippines should first be unable or unwilling to prosecute the alleged crimes against humanity in our jurisdiction,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence that this Administration is unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes against humanity. The opposite is true. The government is pursuing vigorously its campaign against all kinds of crimes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He also insisted that while the Philippines may have been a signatory to the Rome Statute, its membership did not place it under the jurisdiction of the ICC.<\/p>\n

Panelo also said the creation of ICC did not comply with the publication requirement to pass the due process test imposed by the 1987 Constitution, \u201cespecially because the instrument is penal in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA contrary interpretation would be antithetical to the demands of due process, constitutionally protected under our Bill of Rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHence, the ICC never acquired jurisdiction over the Philippines, the latter\u2019s membership thereat being void ab initio (invalid from the outset). Necessarily, it did not give birth to any legal effect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 Malaca\u00f1ang on Saturday dismissed as \u201cutter disrespect\u201d the International Criminal Court\u2019s (ICC) insistence that it has jurisdiction to proceed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":222653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239414","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239415,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239414\/revisions\/239415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}