Philippines should allow ICC probers, question jurisdiction later —Rodriguez

The Philippine government should allow the International Criminal Court to probe the drug war killings during the Duterte administration, House constitutional amendments panel chairperson Rufus Rodriguez said Thursday.

Rodriguez made the call after the ICC Appeals Chamber denied the Philippine government’s appeal to stop the international tribunal's investigation into the drug war, saying the Philippines failed to prove to the ICC that investigations and prosecutions are being conducted.

“The government can allow the investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into thousands of anti-drug war killings and question the tribunal’s jurisdiction later. The proper and only course of action of the Republic of the Philippines is to raise the issue of jurisdiction when the case is eventually filed in the ICC,” Rodriguez, a former dean of San Sebastian College of Law, said in a statement.

“Jurisdiction can be questioned at any stage of the proceedings,” he added.

Rodriguez expressed confidence that the ICC will eventually find merit in the Philippine government’s argument that the drug war probe should be left to Philippine authorities.

“When the case is brought to the ICC, we raise the issue of jurisdiction and the Philippines will surely secure its dismissal for lack of jurisdiction,” he said.

“There is no need for our government officials to say many extraneous comments on the decision,” he added.

The Department of Justice earlier said that the government would not comply if the ICC issued an arrest warrant against subjects of the probe, including former president Rodrigo Duterte. 

Rodriguez cited the dissenting opinion of two of the five ICC judges who voted on the matter, which pointed out that Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC after it announced its preliminary investigation into his drugs war. 

The same minority opinion also argued that the ICC Prosecutor only started the probe back in September 2021, more than two years after the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute took effect.

A former ICC judge, however, said that the ICC may still conduct an investigation or even a trial after a country leaves the tribunal. "Article 127 of the Statute says the Court retains jurisdiction even after withdrawal. It retains jurisdiction over all crimes committed in [a country's] territory while it was still a member of the Rome Statute," Raul Pangalangan said in 2021.

The ICC Prosecutor Pre-Trial chamber had earlier observed that “the available material indicates, to the required standard, that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a State policy, within the meaning of Article 7(1) and (2)(a) of the Statute.”

Bong weighs in

Over at the Senate, Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. said he was "befuddled" by what he calls the ICC's "baseless persecution" of Duterte and Dela Rosa, saying that the war on drugs is the "favorite punching bag" of the former president's opponents. 

"It is obvious the ICC's interest here is not justice but something else entirely. Binobomba at pinapatay ang mga sibilyan, guro, mga bata at mga musmos sa ibang panig ng mundo pero si Bato at Duterte ang pinanggigigilan nila," he said.

Thousands of Filipinos have been killed in the Duterte administration's anti-drugs campaign. The government's own estimate puts the number of dead at over 6,000, but rights groups say the actual toll is higher. — BM, GMA Integrated News