PDEA to give ‘real’ drug war numbers to ICC if asked

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) will cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on its “examination” of the government’s drug war, its spokesperson said on Wednesday.

“This is precisely why we came up with Real Numbers so we can be transparent in the conduct of the anti-drug campaign. Now if the data will be summoned in relation to such hearing, PDEA will support in terms of the data,” Director Derrick Carreon said during the #RealNumbers briefing at Malacañang.

Carreon, however, said that the agency would have to study how the process in the ICC works and how the agency’s data would be relevant to the proceedings.

“We will have to see papaano yung takbo nung kaso kasi kung relevant d’on yung data definitely, automatic ’yon isusubmit natin,” he said.

(We will have to see how the case will run because if the data is relevant, we will definitely, automatically submit it.)

“But as of now, it is still in the preliminary stages so we will wait and see where the PDEA and other agencies step in in order to support the figures or the campaign of the President,” he added.

Carreon said that from July 1, 2016 to February 8, 2018, law enforcement agencies have conducted 85,068 anti-illegal drug operations and arrested 121,087 drug suspects.

In these operations, 4,021 drug personalities have been killed, he said.

The Philippine National Police, meanwhile, distanced itself from the developments in the ICC, saying President Rodrigo Duterte has already spoken on the matter.

“I think the Malacañang has spoken about the position of the government insofar as the ICC is concerned. The PNP does have to muddle the issue anymore and we’re keeping a distance from it right now,” PNP spokesperson C/Supt. John Bulalacao said in the same briefing.

ICC prosecutor Fatuous Bensouda last week said that “preliminary examination of the situation in the Philippines will analyze crimes” allegedly committed in the Philippines from at least July 1, 2016 in the context of the anti-drug campaign.

The examination stemmed from the complaint filed by Jude Josue Sabio, lawyer of self-confessed Davao Death Squad hitmen Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascañas.

The examination is the first formal step that the ICC prosecutor takes when considering whether a situation in a member state could eventually lead to charges. The process may take years.

Duterte ordered the removal of the PNP from the helm of his bloody crackdown against illegal drugs last year amid allegations of human rights abuses, and tapped PDEA to lead the campaign.

The PNP returned to the campaign in December./ac