THE QUESTION is, how can the ICC investigators prove that it was not a legitimate campaign to eliminate the evil drug trade operated by criminal gangs and drug traffickers at the highest level of society? Anyway, the ICC has no power to enforce its mandate to investigate such alleged crimes if the Philippine government does not cooperate. The ICC has to have state cooperation or it has no jurisdiction.
Who in the Philippines in their right mind is going to help bring the President to the ICC and enforce an international arrest warrant? None for sure. Besides the ICC is only a secondary court and a Philippine court is the first court of recourse for any complaint or group of complaints. It is only when the national government is unable or unwilling to prosecute can the ICC step in. This limited jurisdiction is a weakness of the ICC. No official would dare allow any suspect wanted by the ICC to be extradited. They would greet an early grave for sure. Besides, the President is not even mentioned in the request filed by the former ICC lead prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, when she said that “state actors, primarily members of the Philippine security forces, killed thousands of suspected drug users and other civilians during official law enforcement operations.”
So, what do we have here, only maverick, rogue police officers going on a killing spree and a rampage? How can the ICC prove they were ordered to do it from the top? The President says he was defending the people from the ravages of the drug culture and had no part in the alleged killing of 8,600 suspects in what he called shoot-outs or fight back. He clearly said that the police operations were “lawfully directed against drug lords and pushers who have for many years destroyed the present generation, especially the youth.”
In 2017, the Philippine police likely exaggerated the 16,600 deaths. That is how many homicides were under investigation, it said. It was evidence of their operational success. How could most of those be validated by the ICC or attributed to the President? Impossible. Besides when the human rights organizations are claiming that as many as 27,000 to 30,000 people were killed in the police operations, there is little chance that the ICC could prove they were connected to the President. Anyway, they are forbidden to enter the Philippines to conduct investigations. The number of those allegedly murdered could be a gross exaggeration and the ICC could not possibly verify such figures and killings. Not even the Philippine Department of Justice could investigate a fraction of such homicides.
Besides, why should the President submit to the ICC? Defiant as ever, he said. According to his spokesperson, “He would rather die than submit to a foreign tribunal.” The President also declared he has nothing to answer for, what he did was to defend his country and his words in July during the State of the Nation speech were truly defiant: “I have never denied [it], and the ICC can record it: Those who destroy my country – I will kill you,” he said. The death toll keeps climbing and President Duterte, true to his word, is fighting on. (preda.org)/PN
