NEW ALLEGATIONS LODGED VS DUTERTE BEFORE ICC

This is the third communication lodged against Duterte before the ICC for alleged “crimes against humanity”

Manila - A new communication against President Rodrigo Duterte was lodged before the International Criminal Court (ICC) by families of alleged victims of extrajudicial killings, accusing the President of committing crimes against humanity in connection with his deadly drug war.

The Philippines is still a member of the ICC because Duterte’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute that governs the court will take effect in March 2019 yet.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr., however, shrugged off the new communication, saying it will not prosper.

The new complainants, including rights advocacy group Rise Up for Life and for Rights, sought Duterte’s arrest for the deaths of thousands of people killed amid his brutal anti-narcotics drive.

They stressed that Duterte’s inhumane acts caused “great suffering to the victims and their families.”

“It is our hope, that with the Court taking jurisdiction of herein complaint, it may force President Duterte to reexamine, if not abandon, his distorted notion of mass murder to solve the country’s drug and crime problem. The intervention of the ICC will save thousands more from slaughter,” the complainants said.

“The extrajudicial killings, mass arrests, and the inhumane acts committed by and under President Duterte, whether 4,410 killed as claimed by the Philippine government or 23,000 as claimed by human rights and media groups, the mass murder and rights violation are so grievous and so heinous that is so sufficient gravity to justify further action of the Court.”