PH won’t cooperate with word criminal court, Palace reiterates
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2019 08:27:49 +0000
THE Philippines will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) should it proceed with its investigation against President Rodrigo Duterte and his war on drugs, Malacañang reiterated on Thursday.
Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement following reports that the ICC may announce its decision to move its investigation on the drug war before March 17, the same day the Philippines’ withdrawal from the The Hague-based tribunal takes effect.
“Are we prepared? They don’t have nga jurisdiction. If they don’t have jurisdiction, they cannot do anything against us,” Panelo told reporters during a press briefing.
“Eh wala ngang (They don’t have) jurisdiction. Bakit ka naman magku-cooperate kung walang (Why should we cooperate if they don’t have) jurisdiction? We’re not bound by their rules,” he added.
Panelo, who is also chief presidential legal counsel, reiterated that the ICC would be violating its own rules if it would conduct a preliminary investigation.
“Under the Rome Statute, if there is a preliminary investigation or any proceedings referring to the preliminary investigation, then or when there is one prior to the effectivity of the withdrawal, they can still proceed with the investigation,” Panelo said.
“But in this particular case, we said assuming that we had not withdrawn, assuming that they have jurisdiction, they cannot proceed because that is in violation of the Rome Statute because it says there that or rather what they did was just a preliminary examination, not preliminary investigation,” he added.
Duterte is facing two communications in connection with the drug war before the ICC, which opened in February last year a preliminary examination to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the matter and a full-blown investigation would serve the interests of justice and of the victims.
In March last year, the President withdrew the Philippines’ ratification of the Rome Statute, citing “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks” against him and his administration as the reason for his withdrawal as a state party.
The move came after ICC special prosecutor Fatou Bensouda started a preliminary examination of the alleged human rights violations committed under the Duterte administration’s intensified war on drugs.
Ruben Carranza, reparative justice director at the International Center for Transitional Justice, had said the ICC was likely to continue investigating Duterte for alleged crimes against humanity
“There are precedents where even after the withdrawal of a state from the ICC, a case that was investigated by the prosecutors continued,” he added.
In his speech on Wednesday, Duterte again expressed readiness to face a death sentence should the ICC find him guilty of crimes against humanity in connection with his war on drugs.
“For the things that I have said, ordered and done, I am willing to put my neck dito sa mga bagay na ito (for these things),” Duterte said at the campaign sortie in Isabela.
“Eh baka balang araw itong ICC na itong mga bugok na ito (Maybe one day the ICC, these idiots), if they decide to hang me, I would be very glad to go and ako pa ang maglagay (I will place the noose),” he added.
In the same speech, the President defended his controversial drug war, which which has claimed a total of 5,176 lives from July 1, 2016 to January 31, 2019 based on government data.
Human rights groups and critics, however, claim the number of deaths could be as high as 20,000.
“Kung hindi ko ginawa ito, ang shabu, manood ka ng TV ngayon (If I didn’t do this…shabu…watch TV) review what was yesterday’s (news) and review it everyday until you reach next year. Araw-araw yan, droga pati violence (Everyday, it’s drugs and violence),” Duterte said. CATHERINE S. VALENTE
The post PH won’t cooperate with word criminal court, Palace reiterates appeared first on The Manila Times Online.