SOLICITOR General Menardo Guevarra yesterday said the government will exhaust all legal remedies to stop the International Criminal Court (ICC) from investigating the deaths associated with the illegal drugs crackdown of the previous administration.
Guevarra made the statement after ICC Special Prosecutor Karim Khan urged the tribunal’s Pre-Trial Chamber to deny the request of the Philippine government to defer the probe on the drug war-related deaths.
“Regardless of the Pre-Trial Chamber’s ruling (on the issue) … the Philippine government will avail itself of all legal remedies, both domestic and international, even as it vigorously pursues its own investigation and prosecution of crimes committed in relation to the government’s so-called war on drugs, all within the framework of our own legal and judicial system,” Guevarra.
He said his office has yet to decide if it will submit a rejoinder to Khan’s response.
Guevarra said the government is also mulling whether to engage the services of a law firm abroad to assist the Office of the Solicitor General in the ICC case.
“The Office of the Solicitor General represents the State, but we may consider engaging any foreign counsel as and when the need arises. Should the ICC investigation result in the indictment of individual persons, the latter will have to engage their own respective private counsel to defend themselves,” he explained.
Guevarra likewise reiterated that all questionable incidents where the deaths of drug suspects occurred have already been investigated or are currently being investigated by the Department of Justice, which he previously headed.
The process, he stressed, takes time. “We have to consider the number of incidents, the right of respondent law officers to due process, the willingness of witnesses to come out and testify, resource constraints, etc.,” he added.
In a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla insisted there is no need for an ICC investigation since the country’s justice system is fully working.
“We are a functioning democracy. Our judicial system is functioning. You, yourselves are a witness to that. You know that the Supreme Court is just here beside us. The Court of Appeals is just in another block. The police are doing their duty,” Remulla said.
“The Prosecution Service is here behind us. We are a sovereign country that has a functioning system, so I don’t see what the ruckus is all about,” he added.
He also said the ICC has no jurisdiction to conduct a probe into the deaths since the country has already withdrawn from the Rome Statute that established the tribunal in 2018, a withdrawal that was formalized a year later.
The DOJ chief also insisted that any investigation by government agencies on the drug war-related deaths cannot be done overnight as they have to observe due process and respect the rights of those who are accused of committing crimes.
Khan has submitted a 21-page reply to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber, insisting there is no reason for the tribunal to accede to the request of the Philippine government to defer the investigation on drug war deaths.
Khan said that “none of the arguments raised by the Philippine government have merit.” “There is no provision in the Rome Statute for a State to challenge the resumption of an investigation on jurisdictional or gravity grounds at this stage of proceeding,” he said.
