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In this October 2019 photo, relatives of victims of the Duterte administration’s so-called extrajudicial executions in the war on drugs light candles to demand justice for their murdered loved ones. INVESTIGATOR / RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Wednesday called the recent report from the International Criminal Court (ICC) “grossly unfair and one-sided,” noting that it lacked a standard validation to show that they were committed. Crimes against humanity in the Duterte administration’s drug war campaign.
“The report of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that there is ‘reasonable basis’ to believe that during the war on drugs crimes against humanity of murder, torture and serious physical injury and mental damage were committed as other inhuman campaign acts, it was tremendously unfair, unjustifiable, and biased, “PDEA said in a statement.
“The [PDEA] He remains skeptical about how the ICC arrived at its findings based solely on open source information. Like all other well-founded reports, the ICC report must show evidence and undergo the standard process of validation and examination before reaching firm conclusions, ”he added.
The drug agency also noted that the ICC should have allowed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to finish its investigation into drug-related killings first.
“The ICC should have waited for the publication of the report of an inter-institutional panel created by the [DOJ] to investigate the apparent drug-related murders, rather than issuing blanket statements that have yet to be proven without the help of a formal and local investigation, ”PDEA said.
PDEA was referring to the Justice Department panel that was created in June to investigate deaths in illegal drug operations.
In a report released Monday, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda found “reasonable grounds to believe” that crimes against humanity of murder, torture and serious physical injury and mental damage were committed in the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign.
Bensouda said his office will decide whether to go ahead with an open investigation into the rights situation in the Philippines in the first half of 2021.
From July 2016 to October 31 of this year, 5,942 people have already been killed in anti-drug operations by law enforcement officers, PDEA said.
KGA
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