Marcos urged to submit to ICC sworn EJK statements of Garma, Espinosa

FILE PHOTO: Former congressman and Bayan Muna chairperson Neri Colmenares. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — Human rights lawyer and former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares on Saturday urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to submit the sworn statements of retired police Col. Royina Garma and self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

This came after the recent developments in the House of Representatives’ quad committee hearings on extrajudicial killings (EJKs) wherein the two resource persons dropped the bombshells.

According to Colmenares, a co-counsel in ICC in some of the cases of EJK victims, said that the testimonies have a “systematic pattern” of human rights abuses that cannot be ignored.

“President Marcos Jr. must act decisively to demonstrate that his administration does not enable impunity by protecting those responsible for these heinous crimes,” said Colmenares in a statement.

“He should turn over the Garma and Espinosa testimonies to the ICC to ensure prosecution of [former president Rodrigo] Duterte and [former police chief Ronald] Dela Rosa,” Colmenares added.

Garma revealed to the quad committee on Friday that the administration of Duterte implemented a reward system for police officers involved in killing drug suspects. The reward system, under the “Davao template” ranged from P20,000 to P1 million per hit.

READ: Garma says Davao drug war template, rewards system applied in entire PH

Meanwhile, Espinosa told the lawmakers on the same quad committee hearing that Dela Rosa, now senator, ordered him to implicate former senator Leila de Lima in the illegal drug trade as part of the political demolition.

Espinosa recanted his statements against de Lima in April 2022, saying that they were all false and just a result of “pressure, coercion, intimidation and serious threats to his life and family members from the police who instructed him to implicate the senator into the illegal drug trade.”

Further, the former Bayan Muna representative also urged the Department of Justice to file charges of grave coercion against dela Rosa for using Espinosa’s testimony, adding that “[w]hich the Court will surely find more believable than dela Rosa’s general denial.”

Colmenares also said that Gen. Edilberto Leonardo, who has recently been tagged behind the killing of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office board secretary Wesley Barayuga, should be investigated.

He also called on the members of the quad committee to continue the probe into the human-rights violations brought by the anti-drug war.

“We also call on the quad committee to ensure the attendance of all those mentioned by Garma to ferret the truth. The families saw some hope due to the investigation being conducted by the quad committee. We hope the chairpersons of the committee will pursue the search for justice to the bitter end.” Colmenares said.

Colmenares noted that the families of the victims of EJK continue to seek justice from the ICC but the former representative pointed out that the perpetrators made sure that they left no trace of evidence.

“It is difficult to file charges in our country because it is hard to get evidence. There is no CCTV, no police report, and no investigations are done by the police. Even prosecutors do not want to file charges,” he said in straight Filipino during the hearing of the mega panel on Friday.

READ: War on drugs: The violence, scars, doubts and families it left behind

The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2018 shortly after the ICC launched a probe into the human-rights violations being committed during Duterte’s anti-drug war campaign.

Marcos previously said that he will not allow ICC to conduct probes on the country’s war on drugs.