Int’l rights group urges ICC to resume probe on Duterte’s drug war

REQUEST GRANTED The government, through Ambassador Eduardo Malaya, formally requested the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to defer its investigation of President Duterte’s brutal war on drugs. —PHOTO BY RAFFY LERMA

MANILA, Philippines — An international human rights group is urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) to proceed with its investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war and his alleged crimes against humanity, calling the probe’s suspension a ‘betrayal’ of witnesses and victims of the alleged abuses.

In a statement on Saturday, International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) chairman Peter Murphy expressed the organization’s “extreme disappointment” in the ICC after it suspended its investigation into the Duterte government’s alleged crimes even despite credible evidence pointing to crimes against humanity being committed.

“Any suspension or delay is an absolute betrayal of those brave individuals who came forward at great personal risk to provide evidence and testimony regarding these alleged crimes,” said Murphy.

This came after ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan told the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC, the body which authorized his investigation in September, that he had “temporarily suspended” the probe after the Philippines requested the ICC to defer to its government’s own investigation of the alleged crimes.

However, Murphy bared that the findings of the First and Second Reports of the Independent International Commission of Investigation into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines (Investigate PH) already clearly showed the “flaws and failure of the domestic remedies now claimed to be operating.”

He also noted that the Philippines has only convicted two police officers out of the 6,011 cases officially recorded up to the end of 2020.

Of the two convictions, Murphy said the case of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos only succeeded because the Barangay Captain (village chief) had failed to switch off the closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) which recorded the abduction of Delos Santos by police officers.

Murphy also dismissed claims made by the Philippine government that thousands of drug war victims were killed by police officers in self-defense after Investigate PH presented forensic evidence to the ICC that showed the victims sustaining defensive wounds, and of victims who were tied up before being killed

“The ICC needs to restart its investigation of all the evidence it has before it and give justice to the tens of thousands of Filipinos murdered at President Duterte’s repeated incitement,” said Murphy.

“ICHRP has full confidence in the impartiality of the ICC. We reiterate that the ICC should heed the call of these families to fully investigate the Duterte administration for these crimes against humanity so that, finally, justice may be served and impunity ended,” he added.

Meanwhile, despite requesting to defer the probe, Malacañang maintained on Saturday that the Hague-based court has no jurisdiction over the Philippine government.

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