The Office of the Solicitor General on Wednesday blasted the calls of senior Canadian officials to allow the International Criminal Court to conduct investigations in connection to the country’s war on drugs.
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra stressed that the OSG has consistently taken the position that “the state has the primary duty of investigating and prosecuting crimes committed in its territory.”
“The role of the ICC is merely complementary and unless there is a clear showing of unwillingness or inability on the part of Philippine government agencies and courts of law to administer justice, the ICC has no reason, much less authority, to take over the investigation in derogation of our status as a sovereign nation,” said Guevarra.
“The ICC should instead respect our criminal justice system, understand its capability and limitations, and not presumptuously impose upon us time limits and procedures that ‘mirror’ its own,” he added.
Guevarra’s statements come at the heels of the suggestion of senior Canadian government officials on Wednesday that the Philippine government should cooperate on the ICC’s investigation on the deadly war on drugs under then-President Rodrigo Duterte, saying Manila cannot be “selective” on its international law obligations.
To recall, the Philippines withdrew in 2019 from the Rome Statute which created the ICC.
However, the Canadian officials said that the government is “still accountable for all actions” before that and that the international court “still has legal jurisdiction” over the drug killings.
“If the Philippines believes in upholding the international law, including things like United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, for example, it means it should also abide by international law,” the senior officials told selected Filipino journalists.
They agreed to speak to the press on the issue on condition that their names will not be published.
The Canadian officials stressed that “accountability is central” and “essential to long-term justice.”
“Human rights is integral in everything that we do even in how we govern ourselves,” they said. “It is embedded in the very core principles for all of our foreign policy. All of our domestic policies as well.”
They also pointed out that the Philippine government cannot be promoting rule of law and cited the UNCLOS in its disputes with China in the South China Sea when it does not honor its other international treaty obligations.
“There’s that selectivism. None of us could do that,” they said. “We can’t have support for UNCLOS on the one hand and then not meet our obligations on the other.”
Previously, Philippine government officials have repeatedly said it will not allow ICC investigators to conduct probe on the drug killings launched by Duterte, which killed more than 6,000 people according to government figures. Human rights groups said the death toll could be higher.
A panel of judges at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands last week authorized the Office of the Prosecutor to resume its investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in the Philippines.
Meantime, Department of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said that the calls were “totally unacceptable” and an “insult” to Philippine sovereignty.