‘Withdrawal of complaint at ICC a wake-up call’

The withdrawal of one of the complaints filed against President Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC) should serve as a wakeup call to the tribunal that it is just being used by “discredited” persons to oust him, Malacañang said yesterday.

Lawyer Jude Sabio, who sued Duterte before the ICC over the administration’s bloody war on illegal drugs, has decided to withdraw his complaint, saying he was “disillusioned” with the actions of the President’s critics.

Sabio said he had suffered a lot of hardship for handling the cases of Edgar Matobato, who claimed to be a former member of a death squad with alleged links to Duterte.

He has also claimed that

Duterte critic and former senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Sen. Leila de Lima did not provide him enough financial support.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the “destabilizers” of the Duterte administration are slowly but surely “being undressed.”

He even compared the administration’s critics to ashfall whose “obnoxious” smell “pollute the air.”

“The ICC has to wake up from its stupor if not ignorance. It should realize by now that it is being used by disgruntled and discredited persons to advance their goal of besmirching the reputation of (President Duterte) and achieving their impossible dream of bringing down the Duterte presidency,” Panelo said in a statement.

“More importantly, it should recognize the unalterable legal fact that it has no jurisdiction over the President and, for that matter, the Philippines,” he added.

The ICC Office of the Prosecutor has claimed that the communication submitted to them cannot be withdrawn and that Sabio’s move would not affect its examination.

But Panelo insisted that Duterte cannot be tried at the ICC because the tribunal never acquired jurisdiction over the Philippines.

“The Rome Statute that created the ICC was never clothed with legal enforceability in our jurisdiction because it lacked the legal requirement of publication, the operative act that should have given birth to its enforceability over the Philippines,” the Palace spokesman said.

“That it continues to accept communications from entities and persons relative to complaints on human rights against Philippine President Duterte only demonstrates its continuing ignorance of the very source of its being,” he added.

Panelo said Sabio’s complaint against Duterte is part of the “vilification campaign relentlessly pursued by the incorrigible detractors as well as the political opposition totally repudiated by the electorate.”

“Trillanes must be squirming in his disgraced retirement by Sabio’s turnabout. Lies can only be sustained for sometime. When conscience haunts and torments the peddler, it melts by the heat of truth,” he said.