RODRIGO Duterte and his followers constantly pose this challenge: Why rely on the International Criminal Court (ICC) when the local justice system is truly working?
Why not file complaints in Philippine courts if there is indeed evidence of crimes against humanity in the drug war waged by the previous administration?
Don’t look now but the Department of Justice has created a task force that will investigate and possibly prosecute crimes of murder that were committed in the controversial war on drugs.
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Legislative hearings have borne fruit. Congressmen have been dogged in their struggle to get the bottom of an evidently well financed campaign that resulted in approximately 30,000 deaths.
The House quad com meetings of late have lasted way past midnight, testing the limits of physical endurance of both inquisitors and resource persons.
As a result, DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla issued Department Order No. 778 last week creating a task force “to probe, conduct case buildup and file necessary charges, if warranted, against the perpetrators as well as those involved in the EJKs during the previous administration’s anti-illegal drug campaign.”
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This task force is composed of eleven people from the prosecution service, chaired by a senior assistant state prosecutor.
They will be aided by the National Bureau of Investigation. They will make a report to Remulla within two months from the issuance of the order. There may be results by the middle of January next year.
If charges are actually filed in court, a local warrant of arrest against Digong, Bato, and others, may actually steal the thunder from that one still being considered by the ICC pretrial chamber.
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Can the charges now being investigated by the ICC prosecutor be the subject of the similar charges in local courts?
Apparently, yes. The crime against humanity of murder is defined and penalized under chapter 3, section 6 of Republic Act 9851.
The “Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and other crimes against humanity” was passed in 2009, or even before the Senate ratified the Philippines’ signing of the Rome Statute that created the ICC.
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The Solicitor General initially tried to deflect ICC jurisdiction by citing the investigation and prosecution of a handful of murder cases in the Philippines.
The ICC ignored that objection because those individual prosecutions are not prosecutions for “crimes against humanity” as defined and penalized under the Rome Statute. The latter is a crime committed by leaders and generals, not by mere foot soldiers and operatives.
A prosecution for the ordinary crime of murder is not the same as a prosecution for the “crime against humanity of murder,” a separate offense even under domestic law. Both prosecutions can co-exist, as one does not negate the other.
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Obviously, the crimes committed in the course of the drug war must be assessed whether they constitute “crimes against humanity” under both the Rome statute and RA 9851.
The DOJ has better access to cases and their records. It can resolve to apply for warrants of arrest faster than the ICC prosecutor./PN
