Ex-IBP prexy calls out lawyer who filed plea to block ICC entry

CRY FOR JUSTICE In this 2018 photo, leaders and supporters of Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a network of Church workers, human rights advocates and relatives of victims of drug-related killings, air their appeal for justice for victims of then President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. —FILE PHOTO 

TACLOBAN CITY — A former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Leyte chapter has belittled a petition filed in court by a lawyer who wants to stop the entry of individuals associated with the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICCJ).

Lawyer Alberto Hidalgo said the pleading filed by lawyer Fernando Perito at the Office of Clerk of Court in Calbayog City, Samar last month “lacks a cause of action.”

“My prediction is this petition will be dismissed by the court for want of legal standing to sue,” he told the Inquirer on Jan. 4.

“What is his (Perito) legal standing to file the action? Is he a proper party? Is he part of those who will be investigated by the ICC?” Hidalgo asked.

He said Perito was not given authority either by former President Duterte or Senator Ronaldo De la Rosa, both of whom were among those primarily subjected to the ICCJ probe.

Perito’s 13-page petition seeks to stop all personnel, directors, and staff of the ICCJ from entering the country to conduct any investigation on alleged extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration.

The petition was to be raffled to a judge on Jan. 8.

Perito, a native of Calbayog, said the government had no legal duty to cooperate with the ICCJ in its investigation of the drug war since it could no longer exercise jurisdiction after the effectiveness of the country’s withdrawal from the organization in 2019.

He also dismissed allegations that during the six-year drug war, about 30,000 people were killed, saying these were without any basis and just “exaggerated hyperboles.”

“The Republic of the Philippines is a sovereign country, its elected officers in the persons of President Rodrigo Duterte and its policemen are being sued for crimes which the ICCJ is making up stories…,” Perito said in his petition.

He added: “The so-called charges against President Duterte for allegedly ordering or allowing execution of thousands of suspected drug offenders are just exaggerated hyperboles and media hype concocted by politicians and their minions who are pretending to be more popish than the pope.”

Perito also lambasted human rights advocates, who, he said, were “more eager to expose the efforts of the most loved president who would do everything to save the Filipinos and the youths.”

Perito has been involved in filing court petitions in the past.

These include asking the Sandiganbayan to stop former president Joseph Estrada from running for president in the 2010 elections and seeking the disbarment of former senator Leila De Lima, among the high-profile victims of the drug war of the Duterte administration.

De Lima was jailed due to her alleged connection to illegal drug activities but was allowed by the courts to post bail after six years, eight months, and 21 days in prison on Nov. 13.

The court cited the weak allegations against De Lima.

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