Denial of PH appeal was last straw
SOLICITOR General Menardo Guevarra yesterday said the Philippine government is ending its engagement with the International Criminal Court (ICC) following Manila’s failed bid to block the resumption of the tribunal’s investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed in pursuit of the Duterte government’s drug crackdown.
Guevarra said the rejection was the final straw. “We just really waited for the decision,” he said.
He said President Marcos Jr. approved the government’s disengagement with the ICC.
“I have discussed this matter personally with PBBM and we have agreed that our appeal to the ICC appeals chamber is the end of our engagement with the ICC,” Guevarra said.
Guevarra, as the Solicitor General, headed the Philippine government’s legal team that engaged with the international court.
Earlier, Guevarra said the Philippines’ continued engagement with the ICC was borne out of comity only and a shared commitment to end impunity.
On Wednesday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said he will discuss with Guevarra, his predecessor at the Department of Justice, the country’s cutting ties with the tribunal.
Both the OSG and the DOJ have expressed disappointment and disagreement with the decision of the Appeals Chamber of the ICC to junk Manila’s plea to stop the investigation being conducted by the team of ICC Special Prosecutor Karim Khan.
The international court, voting 3-2, rebuffed the Philippines’ position that the DOJ is already investigating the alleged extrajudicial killings and abuses committed by abusive police officers in carrying out the directives of former President Duterte to stop the illegal drugs trade in the country.
Manila has also raised the issue of jurisdiction in its arguments, saying that the ICC no longer has authority to carry out the probe into crimes committed in the Philippines following the country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute in 2019.
Majority of the judges of ICC appeals chamber ruled that the jurisdiction issue was not properly raised before the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber, and thus could not be expounded by the appeals chamber.
Khan has argued that contrary to Manila’s position, the Philippines was still a party to the Rome Statute that created the ICC when the alleged abuses and extrajudicial killings related to Duterte’s crackdown on illegal drugs occurred.
He stressed the scope of the probe covers alleged crimes from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019, while Manila’s withdrawal took effect on March 17, 2019.
ALTERNATIVE COURT
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros said victims of the drug was look at the ICC as an alternative court of justice due to the slow resolution of their complaints by the DOJ and local courts.
She said while a number of cops were charged with the alleged extrajudicial killings of suspected drug suspects, only two cases have been resolved — the cases involving Kian delos Santos and that of Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman.
Hontiveros said she does not consider the ICC as interfering in the country’s justice system since the country’s structure grinds slow to give justice to the victims.
“Sa hanggang 30,000 na pinatay na biktima ng war on drugs na binibilang ng mga human rights organizations, iilan lamang ang ikinaso sa ating mga korte at sa mga iyon, dalawa pa lang ang nabigyan ng desisyon ng ating mga korte (With up to around 30,000 killed in the war on drugs as tallied by human rights organizations, there were few cases filed in court, and out of that, only two cases have been resolved by the courts),” Hontiveros said.
“Pero dalawa lang iyon out of possible 30,000 (But these are only two out of the possible 30,000 [killed]). So, we need all the help we can get,” she stressed.
Kian delos Santos, 17, was shot dead by cops in what they said was an anti-illegal drugs operation in Caloocan City on August 16, 2017. Three cops — PO3 Arnel Oares, PO1 Jeremiah Pereda, and PO1 Jerwin Cruz–were later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in November 2018 after they were found guilty of murdering the 17-year-old student.
Two days after Delos Santos was killed, Arnaiz and De Guzman went missing from their residences in Cainta, Rizal. Their bodies were later found, with Arnaiz seemed to have been shot by the police, while De Guzman’s body was found in a creek in Gapan, Nueva Ecija with 30 stab wounds.
Former police officer Jeffrey Perez was found guilty of killing Arnaiz and De Guzman on March this year and was sentenced to 40 years in prison without eligibility of parole. — With Raymond Africa
