Duterte would ‘die first’ before facing tribunal
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte would rather “die first” before facing an international tribunal, his spokesman said Thursday, the day after the International Criminal Court announced it would investigate allegations of crimes against humanity during his bloody war on drugs.
Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said the president was unfazed when he’d informed him late Wednesday of the court’s decision.
“The president didn’t have any reaction, because from the get-go, he has said that he’ll die first before he faces any international courts,” Roque told reporters.
“If there are any complaints, they should file it here in the Philippines.”
The court on Wednesday said it had authorized an investigation requested by former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda into Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign, saying it could not “be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation.”
More than 6,000 mostly poor drug suspects have been killed during the campaign, according to the government, but human rights groups say the death toll is considerably higher and should include many unsolved killings by motorcycle-riding gunmen who may have been deployed by police.
Duterte, who has cheered many of the deaths but denied condoning extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, is constitutionally prohibited from running for another term as president in elections next year. But he has announced he will run as vice president in a maneuver critics have said is an attempt to maintain power and insulate himself from the ICC investigation.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the ICC’S announcement comes at a “pivotal time” and that “human rights should be at the center of discussions when the Philippines chooses its next leaders.”
“No one is above the law,” she said in a statement. “Duterte’s government must immediately end the cycle of killings,
remove those involved from the ranks of the police and bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility to trial.”
Duterte’s chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, alleged that the Netherlands-based international court was “being utilized as a political and propaganda apparatus” by Duterte’s political opponents. “While we expect that more theatrics will be employed by the detractors of the president as election season draws near, this blatant and brazen interference and assault on our sovereignty as an independent country by the ICC is condemnable,” he said in a written statement.
In her 57-page request, a partially redacted version of which the court released to the public, Bensouda argued that Duterte’s aggressive approach and bellicose rhetoric toward drug traffickers had already taken shape when he served as mayor of Davao City, before he was elected president in 2016.
“On multiple occasions, Duterte publicly supported and encouraged the killing of petty criminals and drug dealers in Davao City,” she wrote.
The investigation will look at killings that took place during some of the time Duterte was mayor, and during his time as president between July 1, 2016, and March 16, 2019, the date the Philippines withdrew from the court.