MANILA – The International Criminal Court (ICC) started its preliminary examination into the crimes against humanity filed by the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) against President Rodrigo Duterte.
The Hague-based group said in a letter on April 4 that the NUPL’s communication “relates to a situation already under preliminary examination by the Office of the Prosecutor.”
It further said: “Your communication will be analyzed in this context, with the assistance of other related communications and other available information. Analysis will be carried out as expeditiously as possible but the meaningful analysis of these factors can take some time.”
The NUPL – represented activists and families of eight victims of the government’s war against illegal drugs – filed a 50-page complaint to the ICC, calling for Duterte’s indictment for alleged thousands of extrajudicial killings in his bloody “war on drugs.”
It was the second communication filed against Duterte at the ICC. Lawyer Jude Sabio filed a complaint against the country’s chief executive in April 2017.
The preliminary examination on Sabio’s complaint has started in February 2018.
Malacañang repeatedly argued that the ICC has no jurisdiction over Duterte stating that the Rome Statute is not enforceable in the Philippines because it was not published in a government publication or any newspaper of national circulation./PN
