BY ADRIAN STEWART CO and PRINCE GOLEZ
MANILA – Another complaint was filed against President Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity in relation to his administration’s “war on drugs.”
Activists and families of eight drug war victims filed the complaint. They called for Duterte’s indictment for “thousands” of extrajudicial killings, including “brazen” executions by police acting with impunity.
Duterte “committed murder over the extrajudicial killings of thousands of Filipinos and inhumane acts for causing great suffering to the victims and their families,” stated the complaint filed by the National Union of People’s Lawyers.
“The mass murders and rights violations under Duterte are so grievous and so heinous that is of sufficient gravity to justify further action of the [ICC],” added the 50-page complaint.
The Philippine National Police said they have killed 4,200 drug suspects in self-defense since Duterte took office. Rights groups claimed police and vigilantes have killed some 12,000.
“Duterte is personally liable for ordering state police to undertake mass killings,” NUPL lawyer Neri Colmenares said, adding that the complaint was backed with pages of evidence.
PALACE THUMBS DOWN PLAINT
Malacañang believes the new complaint against the President will not succeed.
“My fearless prediction is it will not prosper dahil sa konsepto ng complementarity,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said Tuesday.
Local courts should be proven “unable” and “unwilling” to exercise jurisdiction over cases first before the ICC could proceed with its investigation, Roque said.
Roque, a human rights lawyer, also said what was filed at the ICC was a communication, not a complaint.
“That’s not a complaint. That’s a communication. It is still to be acted upon by the ICC. Procedure is different,” he said. “Anyone can file a communication. Even a pope has a communication filed against him so that doesn’t mean anything.”
It was the third complaint filed against Duterte before the ICC in The Hague.
Lawyer Jude Sabio filed one in 2017. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Rep. Gary Alejano followed suit. They made similar allegations.
Sabio counseled Edgar Matobato, a retired Davao City policeman who accused Duterte of ordering assassinations when he was still mayor of that city.
Earlier this year the ICC launched a preliminary investigation into Sabio’s complaint.
This prompted Duterte in May to withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statue, which created the ICC.
The Philippines currently remains a party to the statute. The withdrawal takes effect a year after it was filed./PN
