Rights group calls on ICC to proceed with probe into Duterte admin's drug war

A coalition of human rights defenders on Saturday called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to continue its investigation into the Duterte administration's drug war.

International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) chairperson Peter Murphy said the organization is extremely disappointed with the ICC Office of the Prosecutor for temporarily halting its investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity in connection with President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

"Any suspension or delay is an absolute betrayal of those brave individuals who came forward at great personal risk to provide evidence and testimony regarding these alleged crimes," Murphy said in a statement.

The ICC Office of the Prosecutor has temporarily suspended its probe into the said matter after the Philippines requested the ICC to defer to its government's investigation of its nationals for killings in the context of the campaign against drugs.

Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands Eduardo Malaya in a letter to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan cited the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) referral to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) of 52 cases in which the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service found administrative liability on the part of the concerned personnel.

In its published review of 52 drug killing cases, the DOJ said several suspects that were killed in the administration’s drug war after allegedly firing first at police officers were negative for gunpowder nitrates.

Murphy however said "the findings of the First and Second Reports of the Independent International Commission of Investigation into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines (Investigate PH) clearly showed the flaws and failure of the domestic remedies now claimed to be operating."

The ICHRP said only two police officers were convicted in the 2017 killing of 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos "– one case in the 6,011 officially recorded up to the end of 2020. This case only succeeded because the Barangay Captain had failed to switch off the CCTV which recorded the police abduction of Kian."

The ICHRP also said Investigate PH presented forensic evidence debunking government claims that victims in the drug war were killed by police in self-defense.

"But there are probably over 30,000 cases of these police killings in anti-drug operations, based on statistics of 'Deaths Under Investigation'. And now the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency no longer reports deaths in anti-drug operations, on their Real Numbers PH webpage," it added.

“The ICC needs to re-start its investigation of all the evidence it has before it and give justice to the tens of thousands of Filipinos murdered at President Duterte’s repeated incitement," Murphy said.

“ICHRP has full confidence in the impartiality of the ICC. We reiterate that the ICC should heed the call of these families to fully investigate the Duterte administration for these crimes against humanity so that, finally, justice may be served and impunity ended,” he added.

The National Union of People's Lawyers on Saturday urged the ICC to reject requests to defer its probe into the Duterte administration’s war on drugs and instead continue its ongoing investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity.

Human rights advocacy group Centerlaw, likewise, called on the ICC to “in the interests of international justice, to authorise the OTP (Office of the Prosecutor) to continue with their investigations of the Situation in the Philippines, as empowered under Article 18(2) of the Rome Statute.”

The group also said that the Philippine government’s request for deferral of the ICC’s investigation, claiming that “it is investigating or has investigated” the crimes against humanity in Duterte’s drug war is “further from the truth.”

Malacañang on Saturday maintained that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippine government despite its request for the Hague-based court to defer its probe into the alleged crimes against humanity in Duterte's war on drugs. —KG, GMA News