SOLICITOR General Menardo Guevarra yesterday clarified the International Criminal Court (ICC) has yet to issue a ruling on the Philippine government’s appeal for it to stop its investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killings related to the bloody anti-drug crackdown of the Duterte administration on the ground that it no longer has jurisdiction over the Philippines following our withdrawal from the Rome Statute in 2019.
Guevarra said he will submit a formal memorandum to President Marcos Jr. and make the clarification following the statement of the President on Tuesday that the Philippines is disengaging from the ICC after its Appeals Chamber on March 27 rejected the Philippine government’s request to give “suspensive effect to the pendancy of the appeal,” which means it was asking the court not to proceed with its inquiry while the main appeal is still pending.
“I am sending a memo today for the President to explain to him the status of our appeal with the ICC Appeals Chamber. I’ll have to clarify with him that the appeal itself is still pending, it has not been denied, it has not been dismissed,” Guevarra told ABS-CBN News Channel.
He said the appeal and the request are different pleadings submitted with the ICC.
Guevarra said the Philippine government is still waiting for the resolution of the appeal. “We don’t know however kung kailan ito darating (We don’t know, however, when this will come out),” he added.
Guevarra, who served as secretary of the Department of Justice during the Duterte administration from 2018 to 2022, explained that what the ICC Appeals Chamber denied was the government’s request to hold its investigation in abeyance, or give a “suspensive effect to the pendency of the appeal,” while it has not yet resolved the appeal questioning the ICC jurisdiction and seeking to stop the probe.
He said the President may have gotten the impression that the main appeal was already rejected with the March 27 ruling considering that the ICC did not formally notify the government in advance of its decision.
Guevarra said the media picked the decision from the ICC’s website ahead of any formal notification. “Somehow, along the transmission of the information, the President might have gotten that it was the appeal itself that was dismissed,” Guevarra said.
He said the OSG submitted an appeals brief to the ICC on March 13 reiterating that the ICC no longer has jurisdiction over the Philippines as Manila has already pulled out of the Rome Statute in 2019. In the same appeals brief, Guevarra asked the international court to suspend and reverse the ruling of the Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber that authorized the resumption of the probe.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte withdrew the country from the Rome Statute in 2019 after ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a preliminary probe into his government’s drug crackdown.
Prior to the March 27 ruling of the ICC Appeals Chamber, the division allowed drug war victims and victim groups to comment on the petition of the Philippine government seeking a stop to the reopening of the inquiry into the drug war-related deaths.
PH JUDICIAL SYSTEM
Sen. Francis Tolentino said the International Criminal Court should first check if the country’s justice system is working before it proceeds with its investigation into the reported drug war killings.
“It’s wrong for the ICC to assume that our judicial system is not working similar to cases that happened in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Lebanon after the Hariri bombing and even the Iraqi incident,” Tolentino said in a virtual press conference.
He said even if the Philippines is still a member of the Rome Statue, the government “can still pray… that (the) ICC should not be involved because our judicial system is working, (and due to) the principle of sovereignty etc.”
“So, patunayan muna nila na hindi gumagana ‘yung ating judicial system (They should first prove that our justice system is not working). So, it’s not the alleged cases prior to the withdrawal, but the entire involvement of the ICC should be subject to scrutiny because nabanggit ko ‘yung (I mentioned the) sovereignty issue, plus there is no reason for ICC to intervene,” he added.
He said that proof that the Philippine justice system is working was the conviction of one Jeffrey Perez, a former police officer involved in the killing of two teenaged boys at the height of the war on drugs in 2017, the indictment of the suspects in the killing of John Matthew Salilig, and the arrest and the filing of charges against the killers of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, among others.
“So, I don’t see any reason why the ICC would and should insist. Mas maganda pa siguro una nilang dinecide ‘yung appeals portion natin, ‘yung main appeal (Maybe it’s better if the ICC decided on our main appeal),” he said.
WELCOME
At the House, Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) said the ICC Appeals Chamber’s decision “is a welcome development in the quest for justice for the victims of extra-judicial killings during the drug war and their families.”
“Matagal ng na-delay ang mga kasong ito at iilan lang ang nilitis dito sa Pilipinas samantalang libo-libo ang pinatay (These cases have long been delayed and only a few have been tried here in the Philippine when thousands were killed),” Castro said in a statement.
Castro, a member of the Makabayan bloc, said the Marcos’ administration’s move to seek the suspension of the probe was “obviously just a delaying tactic to protect the culprits behind the killings.”
Bayan Muna party-list chair Neri Colmenares, who is also a lawyer for the families of summary execution victims in the ICC case against Duterte and his subordinates, said he was heartened that the ICC Appeals Chamber has rejected the request of the Philippine government to suspend the ICC Prosecutor’s investigation.
“Clearly, there is no basis for the claim of the Marcos-Duterte administration that the ICC investigation would create an ‘irreversible’ damage on the Philippines that ‘cannot be corrected’. The Marcos-Duterte administration could always continue its supposed investigation here while the ICC is also investigating. The Philippine threat that an ICC investigation has ‘far reaching and inimical consequences on the suspects, witnesses and victims’ is also without legal or factual basis,” said the former Bayan Muna lawmaker.
Colmenares said that on the contrary, any suspension of the investigation “has inimical implications on the victims and witnesses as they have been waiting for justice since their kin were ruthlessly and arrogantly murdered more than six years ago.”
He said Philippine request for the suspension of the investigation is only intended to delay the case and asked the ICC Appeals Chamber “to once and for all deny the appeal of the Marcos-Duterte administration so that the investigation could be concluded and hopefully, the trial of former President Duterte could ensue.”
Colmenares also reiterated the demand for the Philippine government to withdraw any use of public funds for the defense of ex-president Duterte considering the budget deficit and extreme economic conditions that the country is in.
“Ex-president Duterte is not only rich and powerful, but one who claims to be a good lawyer,” Colmenares said. “On October 13, 2016, former President Duterte arrogantly belittled the ICC saying ‘l’ll play with you. I’m very sure they cannot be brighter than me. I will ask five questions that will humiliate you. Watch out for that, it will be a spectacle’ as he had been a trial lawyer for eight years. Ex-president Duterte claims that he can ‘humiliate’ the ICC and win his case if given the chance.”
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros said “disengaging” from the ICC, as ordered by President Marcos, will put the Philippines in a bad light in the international community.
“Tila pino-protektahan ng Pangulo ang isang kaalyado, kung kailan dapat niyang protektahan ang mamayang Pilipino (It seems that the President is protecting an ally, when he should be protecting the Filipinos),” Hontiveros said.
She said the government is apparently not keen on giving justice to the war in drugs victims since only three cases have been resolved out of the more than 6,000 killed in the past seven years.
She said the government is saying it has a working justice system but lacks aggressive efforts to resolve the killings.
“Muli bang tatalikuran ng Pangulo ang pamilya ng mga biktima gaya ng ginawa nila sa maraming victim-survivors ng Martial Law? (Will the President once again ignore the victims just like what his family did to victim-survivors of Martial Law?),” she added.
BATO’S LAWYER
Among those charged before the ICC is Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who was the PNP chief when the intensified war on drugs was launched during the first years of the Duterte administration.
Tolentino said he will be the legal counsel of Dela Rosa after he was consulted by the latter on how he handle the possibility that the ICC would issue a warrant of arrest against him.
When asked what his initial advise for Dela Rosa would be, Tolentino said: “Stay put and then if there is an administrative or quasi-judicial body seeking documents or asking for his testimony, we will submit. Dito dapat mag-imbestiga, hindi dapat sa the Netherlands or the Hague (The investigation should be done here, not in the Netherlands or the Hague).”
“The Constitution of the Philippines will apply here and will not apply in the Netherlands,” he added.
He said there is no need to have a “legal scrutiny” of the ICC cases against Dela Rosa since these have been printed in newspapers.
He said he will make sure that Dela Rosa is protected “not just within the confines of the ICC because we are claiming that they don’t have jurisdiction, but even locally.”
He said he will ask permission from Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to allow him to be Dela Rosa’s legal counsel. — With Raymond Africa and Wendell Vigilia
