{"id":239437,"date":"2019-12-08T02:45:09","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T07:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=239437"},"modified":"2019-12-08T02:45:09","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T07:45:09","slug":"icc-cant-arrest-duterte-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/12\/08\/icc-cant-arrest-duterte-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC can’t arrest Duterte: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on September 10, 2019. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The International Criminal Court (ICC) has no authority to arrest President Rodrigo Duterte on the basis of alleged commission of crimes against humanity for the deaths of thousands of drug personalities in the country, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo’s statement was in response to the claim of former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares that Duterte may soon face possible arrest, once the ICC is done with its preliminary examination of the war on illegal drugs in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Colmenares claimed Duterte would struggle in his last two years in office, “if a warrant is issued for his arrest worldwide.”<\/p>\n

In an interview with dzIQ, Panelo shrugged off Colmenares’ “fervent wish” for Duterte’s arrest, noting that the ICC will never have jurisdiction over the Philippines.<\/p>\n

“Unang-una, wish lang ni<\/em>\u00a0(former) Congressman Colmenares yun.\u00a0Eh siguro ‘yun ang kanyan<\/em>g fervent wish.\u00a0Hindi mangyayari ‘yu<\/em>n (First and foremost, that’s just a wish of former Congressman Colmenares. That’s just his fervent wish. That will never happen),” Panelo, also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, said.<\/p>\n

“Pangalawa, wala ng<\/em>\u00a0jurisdiction\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0ICC so ineffective\u00a0na mag-issue pa sila ng<\/em>\u00a0warrant.\u00a0Now, paano nila ie<\/em>-enforce (Second, the ICC has no jurisdiction so it is ineffective for them to issue a warrant. How can they enforce that)?” he added.<\/p>\n

The ICC, in its \u201cpreliminary examination activities\u201d report for 2019, noted that it seeks the conclusion of 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 was officially out of the ICC on March 17, 2019, or a year after the Duterte administration officially issued a formal notification about its intent of leaving the international tribunal body.<\/p>\n

The country’s departure came after the ICC launched in February 2018 a preliminary examination of Duterte’s crackdown on illegal drugs, based on lawyer Jude Sabio’s communication, which accused the President of committing crimes against humanity for the killings of thousands of drug offenders from July 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017.<\/p>\n

Despite the Philippines’ withdrawal, the ICC pushed through with its preliminary examination, stressing that it has jurisdiction over the possible crimes committed during the period the Philippines was a member-state of the international court.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said it is willing to cooperate with the ICC, in the event that it is tapped for information on Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign.<\/p>\n

Panelo merely brushed aside the CHR’s remarks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Nasa sa kanila na ‘yun. Hindi naman namin pinapakialaman ang<\/em>\u00a0Commission on Human Rights (It’s up to them. We don’t interfere in the affairs of the Commission on Human Rights),” he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte was still “not bothered,” despite the accusation thrown against him, his spokesman said.<\/p>\n

“No, [the President is not bothered]. I think it’s Colmenares who’s bothered,” Panelo said.<\/p>\n

“Eh di ba nga matagal na niyang sinasabi, wala ngang<\/em>\u00a0jurisdiction.\u00a0Kahit ano pang gawin nila, walang mangyayari sa kanila<\/em>\u00a0(He has been saying that the ICC has no jurisdiction. Whatever it does, it will not prosper),” he added.<\/p>\n

In a speech delivered on Nov. 30, the President stressed that the ICC “cannot prosecute [him] for a thousand years.”<\/p>\n

Panelo also believed that the case lodged before the ICC would not thrive.<\/p>\n

He stressed that the international tribunal would need more time to look into the allegations hurled against Duterte.<\/p>\n

“Unang-una, may<\/em>\u00a0(First and foremost, there is) preliminary examination to determine whether\u00a0pwede silang<\/em>\u00a0(they can)\u00a0mag<\/em>-acquire\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0jurisdiction. Number two,\u00a0magkakaroon ng\u00a0<\/em>(there will be) preliminary investigation to determine whether there’s a probable cause or none,” he said.<\/p>\n

“‘Pag meron na, saka magta-<\/em>trial.\u00a0Malayo pa yun assuming na may<\/em>\u00a0jurisdiction.\u00a0Eh wala nga<\/em>, as far as we are concerned (If there is a probable cause, it will start the trial. It will take more time, assuming that it has jurisdiction. But it has no jurisdiction as far as we are concerned),” Panelo added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The International Criminal Court (ICC) has no authority to arrest President Rodrigo Duterte on the basis of alleged commission …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":230503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239437","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\/239437","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=239437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239438,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239437\/revisions\/239438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}