{"id":242231,"date":"2020-01-15T20:21:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T01:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=242231"},"modified":"2020-01-15T20:21:04","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T01:21:04","slug":"incorrigible-detractors-using-icc-to-discredit-duterte-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/15\/incorrigible-detractors-using-icc-to-discredit-duterte-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Incorrigible detractors\u2019 using ICC to discredit Duterte: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement after lawyer Jude Sabio dropped the communication, he lodged against Duterte before the ICC. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 It is high time for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to \u201cwake up\u201d and realize that \u201cdisgruntled and discredited\u201d individuals are tainting President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s reputation for their own benefit, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement after lawyer Jude Sabio dropped the communication, he lodged against Duterte before the ICC.<\/p>\n

Panelo said Sabio\u2019s withdrawal of the communication bared the truth that the accusations against Duterte and his war on illegal drugs were part of the \u201cvilification campaign\u201d of opposition Liberal Party and other critics like former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabio claims he has withdrawn his complaint because he didn\u2019t want to be a part of the political propaganda of Trillanes and the Liberal Party,\u201d the Palace official said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“Put simply, the complaint against President Duterte, orchestrated by Trillanes, is part of the vilification campaign relentlessly pursued by the incorrigible detractors as well as the political opposition totally repudiated by the electorate,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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

The Philippines was officially out of the ICC on Mar. 17, 2019, but the international body still proceeded with its preliminary examination of the anti-narcotics campaign initiated by Duterte despite the country\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

In February 2018, the ICC launched a preliminary examination of Duterte’s crackdown on illegal drugs, based on Sabio’s communication that accuses the President of committing crimes against humanity for the killings of thousands of drug offenders from July 1, 2016 to Mar. 31, 2017.<\/p>\n

Sabio, in a 28-page pleading, asked ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Tuesday to remove his name from the communications sent to the international tribunal.<\/p>\n

\u2018Impossible dream\u2019 to bring down gov\u2019t<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo said it appeared that Sabio was merely tapped by Trillanes to file the complaint against the President.<\/p>\n

He added that lies can only be sustained for some time, but when \u201cconscience haunts and torments the peddler, it melts by the heat of truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The professional tie between the two has since turned sour owing to Trillanes\u2019 alleged failure to pay Sabio\u2019s professional fees leading to the latter\u2019s withdrawal of his complaint before the ICC,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrillanes must be squirming in his disgraced retirement by Sabio\u2019s turnabout,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said \u201cslowly but surely,\u201d destabilizers of Duterte and his administration are \u201cundressed\u201d as their \u201cobnoxious smell like ashfall pollute the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelo said the ICC should be awakened to the fact that Duterte\u2019s enemies want to fulfill the \u201cimpossible dream\u201d to topple the current administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ICC has to wake up from its stupor if not ignorance,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should realize by now that it is being used by disgruntled and discredited persons to advance their goal of besmirching the reputation of PRRD (President Rodrigo R. Duterte) and achieving their impossible dream of bringing down the Duterte presidency,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

No jurisdiction over PRRD, PH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo, also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, also insisted that the ICC has no jurisdiction over Duterte and the Philippines.<\/p>\n

He said it is an \u201cincontrovertible\u201d fact that the ICC \u201cnever\u201d acquired jurisdiction over the Philippines because the Rome Statute that created the international body is \u201cnever clothed with legal enforceability\u201d in the country\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

He reiterated that the Rome Statute lacks the legal requirement of publication, the operative act that should have given birth to its enforceability over the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (ICC) continues to accept communications from entities and persons relative to complaints on human rights against Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. (It) only demonstrates its continuing ignorance of the very source of its being,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should recognize the unalterable legal fact that it has no jurisdiction over the President, and for that matter, the Philippines,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 12, 2019, Duterte denied that he ordered the police and the military to kill drug suspects in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

The President also said on Dec. 20 last year that he would not cooperate with the ICC, in case it seeks his explanation over the deaths of drug offenders in the country under his watch.<\/p>\n

The President said he would not respond to ICC\u2019s possible \u201cstupid\u201d questions since he is \u201cresponsible only to the Filipino(s).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 It is high time for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to \u201cwake up\u201d and realize that \u201cdisgruntled and discredited\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":197910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242231","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\/242231","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=242231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242232,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242231\/revisions\/242232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}