REMULLA: ICC HAS NO JURISDICTION
HE SAID THE INVESTIGATION CONTINUES AND THEY ARE BEING PURSUED AND IF THE ICC WILL ASK FOR A REPORT THEY WILL BE GIVEN, ‘OUT OF COMITY, OUT OF FRIENDSHIP WITH THEM, OUT OF DECENCY, WE WILL GIVE IT TO THEM IF THEY ASK FOR IT.’
Department of Justice (DoJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the International Criminal Court (ICC) lacks jurisdiction to conduct a probe into the alleged atrocities committed during the previous administration’s war on drugs.
Remulla maintained that since the country is no longer a member, the ICC cannot investigate since the it has a functioning judicial system.
“If the country is still part of the treaty, then the state can accede to the probe,” he said.
“We have withdrawn from the ICC. They say that they want to investigate crimes here in the country, but we have a functioning judicial system. It’s not perfect but it’s functioning, we are not a banana republic, so why are we, why should they want to go to the country? Unless the agenda is political, and we don’t want political agenda by people other than us. We do our politics in our own country, not foreigners,” he explained.
The ICC, last December, announced that it was suspending investigation into the supposed atrocities committed during the campaign against illegal drugs to assess a deferral letter-request from the Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands.
Prosecutor Karim Khan has asked the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I in a 53page application, to authorize the resumption of their investigation into the Philippines’ bloody war on drugs that resulted to thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Khan said majority of the information provided by the Philippine Government relates to administrative and other non-penal processes and proceedings which do not seek to establish criminal responsibility, therefore cannot warrant deferral of the ICC’s criminal investigation.
He also said the various proceedings referenced by the Philippines also fail to sufficiently mirror the authorized ICC investigation.
A panel led by the DoJ that include law enforcement units led the review of 5,655 anti-drug operations that resulted in deaths to see whether to file charges against the police officers involved.
Access was given to the DoJ to Philippine National Police’s records of deaths during the government’s war on drugs by then PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar.
Investigation by the DoJ that include the NBI into the unwarranted deaths during the campaign against illegal drugs is still ongoing according to Remulla.
He said the investigation continues and they are being pursued and if the ICC will ask for a report they will be given, “out of comity, out of friendship with them, out of decency, we will give it to them if they ask for it.”