International Criminal Court probers will continue to be barred from the Philippines because the government has a responsibility to the nation not to let them in.
Assistant Solicitor General Justice Angelita Miranda said the core issue in the government’s defiance of the ICC’s effort to investigate the drug war is about defending sovereignty.
“While we adhere to international laws, the Philippines has a functioning judiciary and the ICC should respect that,” Miranda said on the weekly Daily Tribune program, Straight Talk.
International lawyers have said that the principle of complementarity compels the ICC not to interfere in the judicial processes of the country.
Through the maneuverings of the opponents of former President Rodrigo Duterte, led by destabilizer Antonio Trillanes IV, the ICC was provided with an alibi to probe the anti-narcotics campaign.
Trillanes’ henchman, Gary Alejano, filed a haphazard impeachment complaint against Duterte in 2017, shortly after the destabilizer’s pawn, lawyer Jude Sabio, filed the crimes against humanity complaint with the ICC against the then president.
Alejano knew that the impeachment case would not prosper but that was part of the grand scheme of Trillanes to activate an ICC investigation.
The president could only be removed through impeachment and proving that the process would not prosper gave the excuse that legal remedies to run after Duterte had been exhausted, opening an opportunity for ICC to enter the picture.
Miranda said she supports Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla when he says he will personally meet the ICC prosecutor when he lands in the country and escort him back to where he came from.
Sabio’s petition to the ICC was the product of figures concocted by the political foes of Duterte such as on the existence of the Davao Death Squad during his term as Davao City mayor and the alleged 20,000 deaths linked to the anti-narcotics campaign.
Proof of the partisan nature of the complaint lodged with the ICC was very evident, yet the tribunal took it upon itself to still pursue the preliminary examination despite Sabio’s withdrawal of the charges after admitting it was a Trillanes operation.
Sabio came out in the open after a dispute over his retainer with Trillanes.
In 2019, after ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda started her preliminary examination of the crimes against humanity complaint, the Philippines completed its withdrawal from the 1998 Rome Statute which created the international court.
Despite the country’s pullout, the prosecutor pointed out that the ICC retained jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Philippines between 2011 and 2019 when it was still a member of the ICC.
The inconsolable enemies of Duterte then challenged the disengagement before the Supreme Court which issued a decision siding with the then president as the chief architect of foreign policy.
The filing of the ICC case in April 2017 was primarily intended to deflect a determined campaign against drug syndicates but it resulted in the probe of the drug network in the New Bilibid Prison that led to the detention of Senator Leila de Lima, who was justice secretary when the shabu factory in the maximum security prison flourished.
The evidence against Duterte and various personalities that the ICC associated with the drug war relied mainly on the testimonies of Arturo Lascañas and Edgar Matobato, who were characters in Trillanes’ stable.
Various probes, including Senate inquiries, proved that the revelations of both were a canard as they were drawn from the myth surrounding Duterte.
Initially dug up were the supposed vigilante killings when the president was Davao City mayor. The yarn was proven to be without proof in investigations conducted by the Senate.
The partisan aim of the Sabio complaint was evident after it hauled practically the entire officialdom of the Duterte administration in the insane petition.
Along with the president in the complaint were then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, Philippine National Police chief Ronald de la Rosa, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, former Interior Secretary Ismael Sueño, National Bureau of Investigation Director Dante Gierran, and Solicitor General Jose Calida. Even Senator Richard Gordon was included for coming out with a Senate report that threw out the testimony of Trillanes factotum Matobato.
The investigations debunked allegations that the extrajudicial killings were state-sponsored.
The Palace labeled the allegations as mere vicious noises in the futile campaign to oust Duterte which was its real intention.
The plot of the hypocrites now is to brand the Marcos administration as shielding Duterte from prosecution which will not find favor among Filipinos who entrust their overwhelming confidence to both leaders.
In contrast, the ICC is trying to shore up its credibility by going after the Philippines.
