The International Criminal Court and the Philippines’ Relations
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an international body that ensures that individuals involved in war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity are prosecuted and receive punishment. Formed in 2002 through the foundation of the Rome Statute, the ICC has jurisdiction to act in countries that have signed it.
The Philippines has been a member of the body since it was first ratified in 2011. As such, like all signatory countries, if it is unable or unwilling to prosecute those guilty of serious crimes, the ICC may exercise its jurisdiction on the case.
Since the beginning of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, the president has orchestrated a war on criminality—specifically illegal drugs—that produced a death toll in the thousands. This drew attention from many human rights groups and organizations across the world, including the ICC. For years, the ICC has sought to investigate the drug war, but have continuously been turned down by the administration. Eventually, Duterte withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019, effectively taking the country out of the Court’s jurisdiction.
The Request
As the then ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda prepared to leave her post, she put in a request to hold an investigation into the Philippine Drug War, which is to be handled by her successor, Karim Khan, if the ICC judges approve of the request within 120 days. This request also sought to look into the events, including the Davao City killings from 2011 and 2016, where Duterte served as mayor.
Regarding the 57-page document that described the findings of their pre-investigation research, Bensouda said, “I have determined that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed on the territory of the Philippines between 1 July 2016 and 16 March 2019 in the context of the government of the Philippines’ “war on drugs” campaign.”
It says that in the span of the 3-year preliminary investigation, an estimate of 12,000 to 30,000 deaths was found. Bensouda's report also claimed that Duterte endorsed the killings of drug suspects and even vowed to protect those who killed them.
The Response
In response to this, the Palace has asserted that they will never cooperate with the probe. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque described this request as “legally erroneous” and “politically motivated,” claiming that Bensouda primarily used evidence from media outlets in her report, which he mentioned is something that lawyers know count as hearsay. They have also claimed that the ICC had no jurisdiction and right to meddle with national issues as they have already withdrawn from the Rome Statute. However, this investigation would be about crimes done that were committed between 2016 and 2019, when the Philippines was still under the ICC. They further said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is actively working with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to review the killings involved in previous anti-drug operations of possible misconducts. The president himself has responded to a related issue in the past, resorting to attacks like calling Bensouda “that black woman” in 2018. Last year, Duterte also said that if he were to be forcibly placed on trial before an international court, he would throw a grenade into the ICC so that they will “all go to hell.”
Current Status and Implications
Currently, the request is being reviewed by the judiciary of the ICC and once approved, will be handed over to Khan to manage the investigation. The prosecutors have also said that regardless of the government’s refusal to cooperate, the investigation will still proceed. The ICC has admitted that non-cooperation will make the proceedings more difficult, but added that they have already made steps to preserve pre-existing evidence as a contingency to this already predicted response by the Philippine government.
Ruben Carranza, director of the Reparative Justice Programme at the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in New York, said that if the investigation is approved, summons and warrants of arrest will soon be issued to individuals that Bensouda mentioned in the report. Bensouda wrote that this may include members of the Philippine security forces and government officials who have caused, endorsed, or ordered these killings, as well as the so-called “vigilantes” and other civilians who have been recruited or paid by the police to conduct the extrajudicial killings (EJKs). Apart from Carranza, Senator Leila de Lima has also released a statement praising the ICC for their actions, saying that Duterte’s days are “coming to an end.”
On the other side of the matter, families of EJK victims see this as a glimmer of hope that justice will finally be served. Llore Benedicto Pasco, a mother of two victims, previously said that the funeral parlor, which was owned by a police officer, charged her P75,000 to release the bodies of her sons. In another case, Efren Morilla, a survivor who played dead in one of these police operations, reported that his companions were tied up and shot by policemen one by one as they begged for their lives. Finally, one of the most highly publicized EJK cases was about Kian Loyd delos Santos who was dragged into an alley and shot. The officers lied saying that he fought back, but witness reports and CCTV footage contradicted these statements. The police officers involved were found guilty over a year after Delos Santos’ death, despite the clear evidence of foul play.
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