{"id":242392,"date":"2020-01-16T20:56:10","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T01:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=242392"},"modified":"2020-01-16T20:56:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T01:56:10","slug":"icc-has-no-right-to-pursue-probe-vs-duterte-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/16\/icc-has-no-right-to-pursue-probe-vs-duterte-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"ICC has no right to pursue probe vs. Duterte: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made the remarks following reports that the ICC said it could not ignore outright the communication filed by Sabio against Duterte\u2019s crackdown on illegal drugs. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The International Criminal Court (ICC) has no authority to continue its preliminary examination on President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s anti-narcotics campaign after lawyer Jude Sabio dropped the communication he filed before the international tribunal, Malaca\u00f1ang insisted Thursday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made the remarks following reports that the ICC said it could not ignore outright the communication filed by Sabio against Duterte\u2019s crackdown on illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the Palace, while it could not prevent the ICC from its plan to proceed with its initial review of the current administration\u2019s drug war, maintains its stance that the international body has no jurisdiction over Duterte and the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi mo naman mapigilan sila<\/em>\u00a0(We cannot stop them) but the fact remains is that it has no jurisdiction whatsoever over the President and for that matter this country. We have repeatedly said that the very source of its authority never gave birth,\u201d Panelo said in a Palace press briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy? Because we have to follow certain processes in giving teeth or enforceability to a particular law. It has to be published in a newspaper of general circulation or on the Official Gazette. And the Rome Statute was never published in either of the two mentioned processes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Philippines officially withdrew its membership from the ICC on March 17, 2019, or exactly a year after it revoked the Rome Statute, a treaty that created the international court on Nov. 1, 2011.<\/p>\n

Manila cut ties with the ICC after prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in February 2018 pushed through with the preliminary examination of Sabio\u2019s communication.<\/p>\n

Sabio\u2019s communication accused Duterte of perpetrating crimes against humanity for thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings of drug suspects since the anti-narcotics drive was launched on July 1, 2016 until March 31, 2017.<\/p>\n

In its report on the 2019 preliminary examination activities, the ICC sought the conclusion of its initial assessment of the drug war in the Philippines to determine whether there is a need to conduct a full-blown investigation into the campaign against rampant narcotics trade in the country.<\/p>\n

However, Sabio on Tuesday asked Bensouda to drop the communication he filed before the ICC.<\/p>\n

According to a report by CNN Philippines, Bensouda\u2019s office said Sabio\u2019s withdrawal \u201cwould have no impact\u201d on the ongoing preliminary examination of Duterte\u2019s drug war.<\/p>\n

Panelo, also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, said the ICC should realize that the communication against Duterte came from a \u201cpolluted source.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also insisted that Duterte\u2019s enemies are taking advantage of the international court\u2019s ongoing preliminary examination to \u201cvilify the administration and besmirch the reputation of the President.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ll notice, the President doesn\u2019t mind all of these.\u00a0Pinababayaan lang niya ‘yung mga naninira sa kanya. Wala naman siyang dine-demanda<\/em>\u00a0(He\u2019s just ignoring those who are tainting his reputation. He\u2019s not filing any cases against them),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, as I said in my statement, lies can only be sustained only for some time, once it haunts the peddler, then those lies melt in the heat of truth.\u00a0Iyan ang nangyayari kaya \u2018yun naman ang ano ni Presidente, lahat ng mga kasinungalingan, lumalabas<\/em>\u00a0eventually\u00a0hindi totoo<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s what is happening now that\u2019s why all the lies have already been debunked),\u201d the Palace official added.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The International Criminal Court (ICC) has no authority to continue its preliminary examination on President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s anti-narcotics campaign …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":197910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","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\/242392","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=242392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242393,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242392\/revisions\/242393"}],"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=242392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}