Manila steps up attacks on ICC regarding drug war

MANILA:A senior cabinet official atacked the alleged insistence of the prosecutor of the Un-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) based in the Netherlands to investigate the deadly war on drugs in the last six years of former president Duterte.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said that ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan was doing the tribunal, a “great disservice” by “challenging” the Philippine system.

Remulla made the remarks ater Khan rejected the submissions turned over by the national government and insisted that the ICC should continue with its investigation on the drug war.

Duterte is facing charges of crimes against humanity in the ICC for the alleged brutal and bloody drug war which resulted in the killing of thousands of poor drug suspects.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) records showed that on June 30, 2022, more than 6,000 drug suspects have been killed.

But local and foreign human rights advocates insisted that the death toll could be higher at 20,000.

“The unfortunate thing here is here comes a foreigner who thinks he knows the Philippines more than we do, who thinks that it is so easy to run a government ran our side of defense,” Remulla, who was visibly irked, told a conference.

“They cannot run roughshod over our system and say “you’re a lousy country and you cannot do what we want you to do,” he added.

“Are they dictating on us? On what she should do as a country?”

Last Sept. 22, the ICC prosecutors led by Khan opposed the Philippine government’s submission to the ICC Pre-trial Chamber, that the ICC’S lack of jurisdiction over the Philippines, the drug war’s inadmissibility to account of the Rome Statute Article 17 and the complementarity principle of international law.

Khan said the arguments raised were not backed by strong evidence that could boost the ICC’S confidence that the Philippines can resolve the alleged crimes against humanity on its own.

He said that the Philippine government and its investigating agencies failed to demonstrate in its Sept. 8 submission “passed our ongoing national proceedings that could match” the looming ICC investigation.

The Philippines withdrew from the ICC on Duterte’s order in 2018 based on the Rome Statute which set up the tribunal. He accused the ICC of allowing itself to be used by his critics and political enemies to atack him and his government.