ICC to examine claims of crimes against humanity by Duterte
PHILIPPINES - The international criminal court is to examine complaints that Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president, has committed crimes against humanity in his brutal anti-drugs crusade.
A report submitted to the ICC last year laid out evidence that Duterte had been directly responsible for “extrajudicial executions and mass murder” over three decades since he began his war on drugs as mayor of Davao in 1988. According to official statistics, 4,000 people have been killed by the police in antidrug operations since Duterte became president. However, the 77-page report submitted by a Philippine lawyer, Jude Sabio, alleged the death toll was over 8,000. Gary Alejano, an opposition politician who tried to get Duterte impeached last year and submitted evidence to the ICC as part of the complaint, said the ICC move was an affirmation that their claims against Duterte had legitimacy, and offered “a ray of hope for the victims of his war on drugs, which is still ongoing right now”.
He said: “In this country, people are at a loss where to go if members of your family feel victim to the war on drugs. They cannot go to police because they are involved, they cannot go to the department of justice because the secretary will say there’s no such thing as extrajudicial killing. And when we request an investigation from the House of Representatives, we can not get an impartial hearing because they are covering up for the president. There is a clear and blatant violation of the rule of law in the Philippines right now, and so the ICC are the only ones who can step in.”
Alejano said he believed they had a “strong case, if we are given the opportunity to be heard.” The ICC investigation into the allegations is only preliminary. Duterte’s spokesperson, Harry Roque, described it as a “waste of the court’s time and resources”, stressing that many of the allegations predated the Philippines becoming a part of the ICC in 2011, and therefore could not be considered.
(The Guardian)