The road to justice is still long. But for now, relatives of the thousands of people killed in Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called war on drugs, along with human rights advocates, are allowing themselves moments of celebration after he was arrested and sent to The Hague to face the International Criminal Court.
That Filipinos have to turn to a foreign court for justice, however, speaks volumes about the criminal justice system in this country. The ICC can step in if a state is deemed to be unable or unwilling to investigate possible genocide and crimes against humanity.
Since the ICC initiated a preliminary examination of the circumstances involving Duterte’s bloody campaign against criminality particularly drug-related offenses, the Philippine government has argued that the pillars of the criminal justice system in the country are fully functional and there is no need for foreign intervention.
Until Duterte was arrested and then flown to the Netherlands last Tuesday, however, the Philippine government had yet to initiate a formal investigation of his accountability for alleged extrajudicial killings in his crackdown on illegal drugs. Duterte has maintained that most of the cases were not EJKs constituting murder as a crime against humanity – the offense for which he will likely be tried by the ICC – but deaths arising from legitimate law enforcement operations. He also explained that he had to work around the structural weaknesses that allowed drug dealers to operate with impunity.
The Philippines passed a law way back in December 2009 – Republic Act 9851 – governing crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity. Yet none of the key players in Duterte’s bloody anti-crime campaign, whether during his presidency or when he was mayor of Davao City, was ever indicted or even investigated for possible violation of RA 9851.
Last year the so-called quad committee of the House of Representatives unearthed damning revelations about the deadly crackdown, including from Duterte himself. To this day, however, only a handful of those implicated, such as former police colonel and sweepstakes general manager Royina Garma, have been charged criminally as a result of the quad comm probe.
Duterte’s camp has slammed his arrest and turnover to the ICC as a surrender of Philippine sovereignty. If the country’s legal system had been functioning properly, there would have been no basis for the ICC to step in. Duterte’s case, apart from opening the doors to accountability, should also lead to reforms that would make it unnecessary for Filipinos to turn to the ICC for justice.
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