PH not obliged to comply but will respond to ICC’s reopening of drug probe
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla. (FILE) Screengrab from House of Representatives Youtube livestream
MANILA, Philippines–The Philippine government will not comply but will respond out of courtesy to the September 8 deadline of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the country to comment on the reopening of the war on drugs investigation against former president Rodrigo Duterte.
“As I said before, we are doing everything as a matter of comity, friendship, respect among nations among unilateral agencies. We are not submitting anything as a matter of compliance, and we are no longer members of the ICC. We have withdrawn from the Rome Statute, and there is no compulsive process for them to go into the country and start investigating anything,” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay on Wednesday.
In 2020, the ICC, through then Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, said in a preliminary investigation report that there is a “reasonable basis” to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in the war on drugs initiated by the Duterte administration since it came into office in 2016.
The ICC prosecutor’s office has conducted a preliminary examination of the situation despite Duterte’s move in 2018 to withdraw the country from the Statute creating the ICC.
She said the ICC still retains jurisdiction over alleged crimes that had occurred in the country when it was a State Party to the Statute from November 1, 2011, to March 16, 2019, when the withdrawal had been formalized.
Bensouda stepped down on June 15, 2021, and was replaced by Karim Khan, who proceeded with the investigation regardless of the country’s withdrawal and change in administration.
Remulla said the country will be sending information regarding what the government has been doing regarding the alleged abuses committed by government authorities in its “war on drugs.”
He said the case information is at the office of Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra.
“It’s just that it’s probably up to him. It has to be worded in such a way that is not in compliance. We are not complying [with] any demand. We are doing this as a matter of comity to inform them that we are doing something on the problems we are supposed to solve on our own,” he said.
The DOJ chief maintained that outside intervention in law enforcement investigations is unnecessary.
“We are currently investigating these crimes. [However,] our judicial system is working, and that is the most important thing that is there,” he said.
He said the ICC should only enter countries with no existing judicial system, which is not the case in the Philippines.
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