While maintaining that President Marcos’ foreign policy decisions
should be followed, Vice President Sara Duterte said she would urge the
Department of Justice (DOJ) not to cooperate in the International
Criminal Court (ICC)’s investigation of the bloody war on drugs during
the administration of her father.
Asked about Marcos’ softened
tone regarding the issue of cooperation with the ICC, Duterte said, “We
all should respect the position of the President, being the chief
architect of foreign policy. His position should be the position of
all.”
But she stressed her office would continue to assert its
position against cooperating with the ICC’s investigation into her
father’s drug war.
“But we will continue to reach out to DOJ
regarding our position on this matter… and we will lay down the legal
basis of our position,” she told reporters on Monday, Nov. 27.
Last
week, Marcos said proposals for the country to rejoin the ICC are
“under study,” raising the possibility of ICC prosecutors being allowed
to investigate and possibly prosecute Duterte and his officials for
crimes against humanity committed in the conduct of his war on drugs.
Marcos
made the statement after members of the House of Representatives, whose
relations with the Vice President and her father appear to have soured,
filed resolutions urging the administration “to extend their full
cooperation to the ICC Prosecutor with respect to its investigation of
any alleged crime within the jurisdiction of the ICC.”
After years of delay, the ICC decided earlier this year to resume its inquiry into the Philippines’ war on drugs.
The
decision drew pushback from several lawmakers allied with former
president Duterte, as well as from Marcos and members of his Cabinet,
including Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
Over 6,000
suspected drug offenders have been killed in Duterte’s drug war based on
government data. However, human rights groups said the number of
fatalities could be several times higher.
For lawyer and former
presidential spokesman Harry Roque, ICC’s absence of judicial cognizance
over the drug war case precludes it from investigating former president
Duterte and his Vice President-daughter.
Roque, who is included
in the court’s list of counsels, also cautioned President Marcos that
his political advisers were using the ICC issue to foment division
between the Marcos administration and the Duterte family.
The
former presidential spokesman opined that the war on drugs case
officially came under the ICC’s cognizance only after the Pre-Trial
Chamber authorized a preliminary investigation in 2022.
“Regardless
of our membership status, the Court cannot invoke jurisdiction since it
was only in 2022 that the former prosecutor was allowed to proceed with
the preliminary investigation. It was two years after the Philippines
officially left the ICC,” Roque explained.
“What the former
prosecutor conducted before 2022 was a preliminary examination, which
differs from an authorized preliminary investigation. She acted in her
own capacity,” he said, apparently referring to Fatou Bensouda. “The ICC
did not have direct participation in this informal process.”
Prospective, not retroactive
Roque
added the jurisdiction of the ICC is applied prospectively and not
retroactively. The ICC’s prospective jurisdiction over the Philippines,
he said, took effect when the country ratified the Rome Statute of the
ICC in 2011.
It was rescinded in 2019, one year after the country
deposited the notice of withdrawal to the United Nations
Secretary-General as stipulated under Article 127.
“Without a
retroactive effect, the court cannot open past cases involving our
former presidents because it will violate their right to due process,”
he said.
“Thus, the ICC cannot subject FPRRD to a probe because
the Philippines withdrew from the Statute long before the Court
authorized a preliminary investigation,” he said, referring to the
former president by his initials.
He expressed belief that given
the court’s prospective jurisdiction, it can only investigate a sitting
chief executive or current leaders suspected of committing grave crimes
against the inter-national community.
Roque said he agreed with
President Marcos that the Philippine government and the court must
settle first the fundamental issue of Philippine sovereignty and
judicial independence relative to the court’s jurisdictional reach.
“I
am worried that PBBM might be getting the wrong advice from people out
to harass and muzzle FPRRD and VP Sara. I appeal to President to ignore
those sowing discord in the UniTeam and dissension between the Marcos
and Duterte families,” he said.
“After the botched impeachment
moves in the Lower House on the Vice President, some ambitious politicos
might capitalize on the ICC probe as a way to humiliate Inday Sara or
worse, remove her from office,” he added.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, for his part, said rejoining the ICC would be unconstitutional if done without Senate concurrence.
Dela Rosa is one of 11 former officials being investigated by the ICC for possible crimes against humanity.
Despite
Marcos’ hinting at allowing the country to rejoin the ICC, Dela Rosa
said he is counting on the Chief Executive’s previous statement that he
is “very firm not to allow the ICC to in-terfere in our justice system,
that’s a very fundamental issue. No. 1 is sovereignty and no. 2 is
jurisdiction.”
“If you want to rejoin, that will still have to go
through the process before we enter into any agreement,” Dela Rosa said
in an interview over ANC.
“After the President’s
ratification, it has to be concurred by the Senate by a two-thirds vote.
So that’s the process. Back to zero, back to square one,” he added.
The senator said failure to follow such process would be unconstitutional.
No skeletons in closet
But
for Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, allowing the ICC to investigate on
Philippine soil the drug war killings during the Duterte administration
will send a clear message to the world that in the issue of human rights
the government has no skeletons in the closet.
“By allowing ICC
to come, it’s telling the world that we have nothing to hide here,”
Abante, who also chairs the House committee on human rights, said.
Abante
has authored a resolution allowing the ICC to investigate former
president Duterte and some of his officials for possible case of crime
against humanity in the conduct of his war on drugs.
The gesture,
he added, will show that the current administration is “very transparent
with its processes” and its justice system is functioning.
“We just want to show to the whole world and to the ICC that our justice system is running smoothly,” he pointed out.
But he stressed the ICC should not be allowed to indict or prosecute the former president and his officials in the country.
“They can come in and investigate and even ask questions to the family of the victims but they cannot prosecute here,” he said.
Rep.
Edcel Lagman of Albay, a human rights lawyer and a vocal critic of
Duterte, maintained that letting the ICC in is not a surrender of
sovereignty. “If we believe in the rule of law, then we must let ICC
come in,” Lagman said.
Abante and Ramon Gutierrez (1-Rider
party-list) filed House Resolution 1477 on the ICC entry during plenary
on Nov. 21, while Lagman filed his – HR 1482 – on the same day.
Marcos
said the ICC issue is “under study” with Speaker Martin Romualdez
making it clear that lawmakers would be guided by whatever the Palace
would decide on the matter.
This happened amid a word war between
House leaders and Duterte, who called the lower legislative chamber a
“rotten institution” after it rejected his daughter’s request for P650
million in confidential funds for the OVP and the Department of
Education, which she heads. – With Delon Porcalla, Cecille Suerte Felipe
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