Philippine justice secretary urges ICC to notify DOJ on probe into ex-leader Duterte’s drug war
- ICC investigators had not contacted the Philippines’ justice department, but it was their ‘duty’ to do so in accordance with international law
- The ICC last July sought to reopen investigations into alleged crimes against humanity committed under Duterte’s drug war
Remulla said the investigators had not contacted his department, and it was their “duty” to do so in accordance of the principles of international law.
“One of my former associate-foreigners who is a member of the ICC has been to the Philippines. So, I have confirmation that these foreigners have been conducting investigations in the country which is in violation of our constitution because we are no longer members of the ICC,” Roque said.
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Remulla insisted on Monday that if the ICC believed it has a case, charges should be filed in the Philippines “because we are a country with a judicial system”, The Manila Standard reported.
The Southeast Asian nation in 2019 withdrew from the international tribunal based in The Hague after then-president Duterte questioned its authority to investigate his police-enforced crackdown on illegal drugs, in which thousands of people were killed.
The killings being investigated by the ICC took place from November 1, 2011, to March 16, 2019, in southern Davao city where Duterte was mayor, and later across the country after he became president.
Duterte has maintained that most of the victims were killed after violently resisting arrest, adding “kill me, jail me … I will never apologise” for the deaths.
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In a rare conviction, a Philippine court in 2018 sentenced three policemen up to 40 years in jail each for the killing of a teenage suspect in Metro Manila’s Caloocan city.
The court rejected their claims that he opened fire at them with a pistol, prompting them to fire back. A security camera and witness accounts indicated that the teenager was dragged into a dark alley and shot to death as he pleaded for his life.
The ICC last July sought to reopen the investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed under Duterte’s drug war after turning down Manila’s appeal against the inquiry.
The Philippines argued that the ICC had no jurisdiction in the country and that authorities there were conducting their own probe.
The country’s lower Congress last year urged the government to cooperate with the ICC prosecutor in its probe, after opposition lawmakers cited Duterte’s admission in a television programme that he used intelligence funds to bankroll extrajudicial killings when he was mayor of Davao city.
