Critics of the war on drugs in ICC report: ‘Acknowledging close’

Critics of President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s report that there was a “reasonable basis to believe” that he and his subordinates committed crimes against humanity in the bloody war against drugs meant that they could soon be forced to answer by the thousands who were killed.

“The time for reckoning is near for Mr. Duterte, his cohorts and facilitators,” said former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, one of the president’s most strident critics.

Trillanes and the former party list representative Magdalo Gary Alejano filed a “communication” or complaint with the ICC in June 2017, urging the international court to investigate Mr. Duterte for crimes against humanity, as the government allegedly does not he had shown interest in holding him accountable.

“Duterte may try to ignore the ICC’s jurisdiction over him, but deep down he knows he can’t escape it,” Trillanes said. “Having outlined Duterte, I’m sure he’s shaking with fear.”

Bayan Muna’s representative, Carlos Zárate, sent a similar message. “The violators of human rights have been warned. Nothing is forever; not even impunity, ”he said.

“We hope that the ICC Prosecutor’s Office will seek authorization to open an investigation in the Philippines in the first half of 2021 or earlier if it can, in order to focus international attention on the dire human rights situation in the country. and help put an end to it, ”said Zárate.

In a report Tuesday, Bensouda said that his office, which had conducted a “preliminary examination” of several allegations of crimes against humanity against Mr. Duterte, “anticipated reaching a decision on whether to request authorization to open an investigation before the first half of 2021 “.

“The office is convinced that the information available provides a reasonable basis for believing that crimes against humanity …, torture … and the infliction of serious physical and mental damage as other inhuman acts … were committed in the territory of the Philippines between at least July 1, 2016 and March 16, 2019 in connection with the war on drugs campaign launched throughout the country, ”says their report.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque insisted that Mr. Duterte did not commit any crime against humanity.

Roque believes that the effort to investigate the president further will not be successful, citing the ICC panel’s decision in April last year to reject Bensouda’s request to investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, including those allegedly committed by US soldiers and intelligence agents.

Afghanistan is a member of the ICC, but the United States is not.

“So, we are confident because, as we said before, that [ruling] be [be] applied by the ICC, its decision in a case, on why to initiate a case if the country that was a member of the ICC would not cooperate ”. Roque said.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said 5,942 people died in the war on drugs from July 2016 to October 31 this year. Human rights watchdogs believe the figure could be almost five times higher.

The human rights group Karapatan said that 328 “non-combatants”, including 185 human rights activists, were killed in the government’s counterinsurgency program from July 2016 to August this year.

Trillanes and Alejano presented their complaint to the ICC two months after Jude Josue Sabio, lawyer for the confessed hitman of the Davao Death Squad Edgar Matobato, filed his against Mr. Duterte and 11 of his allies.

Sabio accused the president and the others of crimes against humanity and “continues [the] mass murder ”that started when Mr. Duterte was mayor of Davao City.

Resentful at Bensouda’s “preliminary examination” of the accusations against him, the president ordered the withdrawal of the Philippines from the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC, in March 2018. The withdrawal was formalized on March 17. of 2019.

In August 2018, a group of activists and the families of eight victims of the war on drugs filed a separate complaint with the ICC, accusing the president of murder and also crimes against humanity.

In January of this year, Sabio announced that he was withdrawing his complaint, claiming that it was only part of the “political propaganda” of the opposition led by the Liberal Party (LP).

Why only now?

Bensouda, however, said that Sabio’s complaint could not be withdrawn because his office had “an obligation to record everything it receives.”

Senator Francis Pangilinan was not surprised by the latest ICC prosecutor’s report, but said it was “worrying” that it took more than four years to find a “reasonable basis” for the accusations against Mr. Duterte.

“Perhaps if they had acted earlier, thousands of lives could have been saved,” said Pangilinan, LP president.

Senator Risa Hontiveros said Bensouda’s “reasonable basis” was “the understatement of the last [four] years ”, but offered“ new hopes of justice and humanity ”.

“Let’s not forget that our innocent young people, like Kian (delos Santos), are helpless victims of this administration’s disproportionate response to what is actually a public health problem,” he said.

Delos Santos was the 17-year-old who was killed in a drug operation in the city of Caloocan in August 2017. Three officers were convicted of murder for his death.

Ping: A PR, nothing more

The president of the Senate, Vicente Sotto III, dismissed the finding of the ICC prosecutor. “That is what [she] believe. Some believe otherwise, ”he told reporters in a Viber message.

Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, a former national police chief, said Bensouda’s report for now “may only be good as a press release and nothing more.”

Under ICC statute, he said, “reasonable grounds to believe are considered an ‘unreasonably unclear threshold of evidence.’

He noted that in order to obtain the ICC’s permission to continue his investigation, Bensouda must demonstrate that the criminal justice system in the Philippines was not working, “or at least it has not prosecuted law enforcement officials who allegedly have committed crimes against humanity. In Philippines. relationship with the bloody war on drugs started by the president ”.

International law professor Romel Bagares said that Bensouda’s preliminary examination would determine whether there was grounds for requesting the ICC investigation chamber to proceed with a formal preliminary investigation.

If that happens, the president and the key officials behind his brutal war will face formal charges.

This was the first time that the ICC prosecutor declared that he had “reasonable grounds” to believe that international crimes were committed when the Philippines was still a party to the Rome Statute.

It also indicates that Bensouda is deciding on the question of admissibility or complementarity, or whether the Philippine courts “are unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes over which the ICC has jurisdiction,” Bagares said.

Bensouda reported that the government has initiated only a “limited number of prosecutions” and has provided “sporadic updates” regarding the murders committed during the war on drugs. This includes the conviction of the three Caloocan policemen for the murder of Delos Santos, the only conviction in relation to the war on drugs.

He added that his office was looking closely at the Justice Department’s interagency task force that was again investigating deaths related to the war on drugs. –WITH REPORTS FROM JEROME ANING, JULIE M. AURELIO AND INQUIRER RESEARCH INQ

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