Will Marcos stop ICC arrest warrants with a written order?

HARRY Roque wants President Bongbong Marcos to issue a written order that says that warrants of arrest, if ever issued by the International Criminal Court, will not be enforced or otherwise ignored by the Philippine National Police.

Is this a viable option?

Will the President be violating any law should he be minded to issue the formal order recommended by Roque?

*** Perhaps unknown to many, the international crime of “crimes against humanity” involving murder was already a crime in the Philippines before it became a member of the ICC in 2011.

Republic Act 9851, otherwise known as the “Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity,” was passed into law in December 2009.

It is a special law that penalizes international crimes on top of common crimes.

Law enforcement agents committing individual premeditated killings may be charged with the common crime of murder under the revised penal code.

On the other hand, the principals, or those at the top of the chain of command, may be charged separately with “willful killing” when “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population,” under section 6 of RA 9851.

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Section 17 of RA 9851 anticipated the Philippines’ eventual accession to the Rome Statute.

To avoid a clash of jurisdictions, the principle of“reverse complementarity” was injected into this domestic law.

Thus, “the relevant Philippine authorities may dispense with the investigation or prosecution of a crime punishable under this Act if another court or international tribunal is already conducting the investigation or undertaking the prosecution of such crime.”

Under this law, government can surrender or extradite suspected or accused persons in the Philippines to the ICC “pursuant to the applicable extradition laws and treaties.”

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Anti- ICC campaigners cite a handful of cases, like the case of cops convicted for the murder of Kian delos Santos, in support of their claim that the local justice system is working and must not therefore yield to foreign intrusion.

Those cases, however, involve the common crime of murder, not the separate crime of willful killing as a crime against humanity under the special penal legislation.

In fact, we have yet to hear of government conducting an investigation of Oplan Tokhang with an eye towards prosecution under RA 9871.

There is no pending investigation or prosecution for crimes against humanity that were committed before the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC became effective. Neither is there any investigation of the killings that continued to be perpetrated after such withdrawal.

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By not doing anything that mirrors the ICC investigation, government will comply with Section 17 of RA 9871 should it surrender to the ICC those accused of committing crimes against humanity.

Consequently, the President may not frustrate the ICC warrant of arrest without going against the spirit behind the enactment of RA 9871.

No one, not even the President, may bend the law to favor a particular group of persons./