Palace unfazed by 2nd communication filed before ICC vs Duterte

Malacañang remained unfazed over the second “communication” filed against President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Human rights groups and families of drug war victims filed the communication, citing the President as having committed murder over “the extrajudicial killings of thousands of Filipinos,” which caused “great suffering to the victims and their families.”

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the communication “doesn’t mean anything.”

“That’s not a complaint. That’s a communication because it’s still to be acted upon by the ICC. Procedure is different. Anyone can file a communication. Even the Pope has a communication filed against him. So that doesn’t mean anything,” Roque said in a Palace briefing on Tuesday.

“Again, my fearless prediction is it will not prosper dahil nga po doon sa konsepto ng complementarity. Hindi po dapat gumalaw ang ICC, unless local courts have proven to be unable or unwilling to exercise jurisdiction on these complaints,” he added.  /muf