Ex-PNP chief Albayalde ready to face ICC

Former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde said Monday that he is ready to face the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged drug war deaths during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Albayalde was responding to a supposed ICC document tagging him, among other police and government officials, as a suspect amid the ongoing ICC investigation of the Duterte administration’s drug war.

“Kung talaga pong ganyan ang kahihinatnan ng ating serbisyo sa publiko for more than 37 years, then handa po tayong harapin,” Albayalde told reporters.

(If this is how our rendering of public service for 37 years ends, then I am ready to face it.)

“Handa po natin harapin ang hamon na yan (We are up to that challenge.),” he added.

However, the former PNP chief doubted the authenticity of the ICC document linking him to the alleged deaths.

“We don’t know if that’s authentic. Would the ICC even allow the release of such document. I think the ICC should also speak on this,” Albayalde said.

Albayalde said that for one, he is yet to receive any communication from ICC.

“If your human rights are being respected here, it’s just right that you have to receive communication concerning such ICC documents,” he said.

He said he is concerned about the allegations.

"It is a concern on the part of my family,” Albayalde said. “And hopefully, I hope that the ICC won’t allow itself to be used in politicking."

He said he is confident President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. will continue to stand firm on not recognizing ICC jurisdiction in the Philippines.

make good on his word that the ICC is not welcome under the Marcos, Jr. administration.

“[Ang] matibay nating pinaniniwalaan dyan ay iyong pronouncement, salita ng ating Pangulong Marcos...na sinabi po niya na hindi talaga niya pababayaan manghimasok yung ICC sa ating bansa dahil meron po tayong perfectly functioning justice system,” Albayalde said.

(We are firmly counting on the pronouncement of the President, that he will not allow ICC to intervene because we have a perfectly functioning justice system.)

“Dito po sa ating bansa, isang malaking sampal po yan sa ating sovereignty at mga sampal din yan sa ating mga justices dahil meron po tayong batas dito sa ating bansa,” he added.

(Otherwise, this is a big slap on our sovereignty, on our judges, because we have our laws.)

But for former Senator Leila de Lima who was charged with three drug-related cases during the Duterte administration which were ultimately junked by the courts by this year, the former President and his cohorts never cared to probe the deaths during the police’s anti-drug operations and those supposedly executed by vigilantes.

De Lima cited that so far, there are only three convictions of drug war perpetrators covering five drug war deaths.

“This is the status of the investigation and prosecution of more than 20,000 drug war killings from 2016-2022. As far as I know, the DOJ (Department of Justice)  has no pronouncement on whether it will conduct further investigation of the remaining 99.92 percent of drug war killings,” de Lima, a former Justice Secretary, said during Monday’s House probe on the drug war.

“We also do not see any investigation by any domestic authority of PNP higher-ups and of the former  President himself. From this summation, we can conclude that the investigation and prosecution of the drug war killings by the local authorities is practically non-existent. There is no indication that the Marcos government will launch a large-scale effort anytime soon to go after the perpetrators, let alone the masterminds of the drug war killings,” she added.—LDF, GMA Integrated News