EJK allegations ‘will not fly’ – Aguirre

CLOSE MONITORING OF KILLINGS: The International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda served notice as early as October 2016 that she would be monitoring killings in
President Duterte’s antidrug campaign. —AFP

The chief of the Department of Justice (DOJ) was confident that the accusations of crimes against humanity against President Rodrigo Duterte and other government officials “will not fly.”

DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II made the remark after the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it would go conduct “preliminary examination”  of a complaint that accused  Duterte of crimes against humanity in connection with extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in his war on drugs.

“Of course, the accusations (of crimes against humanity) will not fly,” Aguirre said in a text message to reporters on Friday.

The DOJ chief added that the government would soon designate a lawyer who will represent them at the ICC.

“We will know who will represent after a few more meetings,” he said.

ICC prosecutor Fatous Bensouda made the announcement on Thursday through a YouTube video where she said they would examine the crimes allegedly committed by the government since July 1, 2016, or the day after Duterte took office.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ob-fHH2A8&feature=youtu.be

Bensouda assured the Philippine government that the preliminary examination would be carried out “with full independence and impartiality in accordance with its mandate and the applicable legal instruments of the Court.”

READ: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/163974/icc-vows-work-independently-examining-ph-drug-deaths

For Malacañang, the ICC preliminary examination would just be a waste of time.

“We view of course this decision of the prosecutor as the waste of the court’s time and resources,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a press briefing on Thursday.

READ: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/967168/breaking-icc-to-launch-preliminary-examination-on-ph-war-on-drugs

But Roque said that Duterte would still cooperate with the preliminary examination as he was “sick and tired” of the allegations hurled against the administration’s drug war.

“The President has said that he also welcomes this preliminary examination because he’s sick and tired of being accused of the commission of crimes against humanity,” Roque said.