Callamard, senators weigh in on remark.

With his own admission that extrajudicial killings are his “only sin,” President Duterte is “destroying the rule of law,” United Nations’ special rapporteur Agnes Callamard said yesterday, as human rights advocates and opposition figures called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to use his pronouncement as evidence to pin him down for crimes against humanity.

A vocal critic of Duterte’s war on drugs, Callamard said she finds such statement from a head of state “extraordinary.”

“Extraordinary statement by a Head of State (and we have had many this week at the UN): my ‘only’ sin is #EJK. Translation: my only sin is imposing unthinkable sufferings on 1000s of vulnerable families, emboldening corrupt policing, destroying rule of law,” Callamard said in a tweet on Thursday.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and former solicitor general Florin Hilbay appealed to the ICC to immediately act on Duterte’s admission.

“That admission will be taken seriously by the International Criminal Court. So in this same vein, I would like to take this opportunity to call on the ICC to expedite the investigation of the crimes against humanity committed by Mr. Duterte against the Filipino people,” Trillanes said at a press conference.

“Here’s the President of the Republic of the Philippines, making a public admission of crimes under your jurisdiction. Please act ASAP,” Hilbay said on his Facebook post, addressing the ICC.

In a separate interview after meeting with Trillanes at the Senate, Hilbay said the ICC should consider Duterte’s pronouncement as a formal and public admission of guilt.

In a speech before career service professionals at Malacañang on Thursday, the President said extrajudicial killings are part of his administration’s war against illegal drugs.

He claimed to have told the military that he had never stolen a peso or gotten anyone in jail. “Ang kasalanan ko lang ‘yung mga (My only sin are the) extrajudicial killing,” Duterte had said.

The UN special rapporteur is seeking a probe on the killings related to the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign.

The administration last year invited Callamard to visit the Philippines to investigate the human rights situation in the country amid the Duterte administration’s bloody war on illegal drugs.

But Callamard declined due to conditions set by the government, including a public debate with Duterte, which she said would break UN protocol.

She, however, visited Manila in May 2017 for an academic conference on illegal drugs.

Human Rights Watch director Phelim Kine said Duterte’s comment would be “useful” for ICC investigators.