SEVERAL representatives, led by Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, have filed a resolution calling on the House of Representatives to declare “unequivocal defense” for former President Rodrigo Duterte amid threats from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to hold him responsible for alleged crimes against humanity.
In the group’s House Resolution No. 780, the lawmakers defended the 16th President of the nation against investigation and/or prosecution by the ICC, saying that the country has “a functioning and independent judicial system.”
Apart from Arroyo, the other co-authors of the resolution are her fellow Kapampangan lawmakers — Carmelo Lazatin, Aurelio Gonzales and Anna York Bondoc.
‘The way it looks, many of our
officials are closing ranks to
defend ex-President Duterte against the threat of ICC investigation
and whatever processes after that.’
The Philippines withdrew its membership from the ICC after its former prosecutor started a preliminary examination on the alleged human rights violations of the Duterte administration. Duterte later barred ICC probers from entering the country to conduct an investigation.
Since the court’s insistence to investigate is prompted by reports of the killings and other alleged abuses in the past administration’s war against the war on drugs, the defenders parried and said that Duterte’s presidency has ushered in remarkable accomplishments brought about by his relentless campaign against illegal drugs, insurgency, separatism and terrorism, corruption in government and criminality.
Arroyo, for one, stressed that the country’s peace and order situation has considerably improved due to the Digong administration’s holistic and whole-nation approach in ending insurgency and curbing the menace brought about by illegal drugs.
The issue of government abuses in the war on drugs resurfaced recently when the ICC’s pre-trial chamber granted the prosecutor’s request to reopen the investigation into Duterte’s handling of the controversial campaign.
Reacting to the matter, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the Philippines has a functional justice system and called the ICC’s latest move as “insulting, totally unacceptable and an irritant.”
Remulla said: “I do not welcome this move. I will not welcome them in the Philippines unless they make it clear that they will respect us. I will not stand for any of these antics that will tend to question our sovereignty.” This stance is shared — albeit more strongly — by chief presidential legal counsel Juan Ponce Enrile.
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, meanwhile said that it is the Philippines’ intention to exhaust all legal remedies, more particularly elevating the matter to the ICC appeals chamber. He said that “our own domestic investigative and judicial processes should take precedence. It is still a well-functioning system that yields positive results in its own time.”
The way it looks, many of our officials are closing ranks to defend ex-President Duterte against the threat of ICC investigation and whatever processes after that. This effort will have a stronger force if it has the backing of a big majority of Filipinos, a situation that is hard to attain mainly because Duterte is no longer in power.
