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Friday, March 29, 2024

Pullout doesn’t stop ICC probe, 4 senators say

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THE withdrawal of the Philippines from the ICC does not prevent it from proceeding with the case against President Rodrigo Duterte, four senators said Wednesday.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senator Francis Pangilinan, all lawyers and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, all believe that the investigation against Duterte and his drug war will still proceed.

“As far as I know it will proceed, regardless of whether you are a member or a non-member,” Pimentel said.

By pulling out of the ICC, the President was telling it “we don’t want to have anything to do with you because there’s an abuse of discretion,” Pimentel said.

He said if he were president, he might do the same thing, because the drug war was a domestic policy.

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“This is law enforcement. In the eyes of the President, when he was campaigning, the main problem is law and order.

What is the root cause of deterioration? It was drugs…. Validated by the people. He won the election. He will now enforce the law. There’s a law and yet they meddled. They’re trying to micromanage the country and they’re going overboard. I can see his point of view,” said Pimentel.

Drilon said the crucial issue here is what happens to the preliminary examination.

“I think that was what prompted the withdrawal, if I can read Malacañang,” he said.

Under Article 127 of the Rome Statute, he said, the withdrawal has no effect on the cases which were filed before the withdrawal.

He said the withdrawal will not affect any cooperation with the Court in connection with criminal investigations and proceedings in relation to which the withdrawing state had a duty to cooperate and which were commenced prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective, nor shall it prejudice in any way the continued consideration of any matter which was already under consideration by the court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective.

“So that is the legal issue now: the effect of the withdrawal. The Rome Statutes so provide. This question will ultimately be decided by the court itself,” said Drilon.

Unfortunately, he said the Senate has no say on the withdrawal.

“I have tried to introduce a resolution before, in February of last year, where I filed Senate Resolution 289, a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the termination of or withdrawal from treaties and international agreements concurred in by the Senate shall be valid and effective only upon the concurrence by the Senate. I filed the resolution and it was signed by the majority of the senators; unfortunately, I think it was Senator [Manny] Pacquaio who objected to it, so it was not passed. So what we did was in the individual treaties that were ratified by the Senate, individually we introduced this paragraph. Of course the Rome Statute ratification was not affected because it was ratified much earlier.”

Trillanes also said the withdrawal has no legal effect on the cases already filed before it, citing the Rome Statute which states that “the effectivity of the withdrawal is only a year after the notification.”

Because of this, Trillanes said all offenses committed by Duterte as documented are still covered by the ICC.

“This is but a political move by Duterte because he knows that there is no way out for him in the ICC. He cannot intimidate them like he’s doing with our courts,” Trillanes said in a mix of English and Filipino.

“But let me backtrack a bit. First, he said that he is willing to be jailed for what he has done. Then, he said that the ICC has no jurisdiction and that he has not committed any crime against humanity.”

By withdrawing from the ICC, Duterte has practically admitted that he is guilty of the allegations filed against him, Trillanes said.

“Mr. Duterte, man up and face the accusations against you. You have killed 20,000 Filpinos. That is clear and the whole country has witnessed it. The day of reckoning is coming,” he said.

Senator Joel Villanueva said the President should reconsider and face the process of the ICC.

“It sends a wrong message to the international community on the political state of the country,” he added.

Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said Duterte has no authority to withdraw from the ICC on its own because it was ratified by the Senate.

The National Union of People’s Lawyers called the withdrawal “a cop-out.”

“It jumps the gun on his potential legal liability or responsibility. He wants to be immune and act with impunity both under domestic law and under international law. The legal reasoning and factual narrative of the withdrawal are novel at best and skewed at worst. The bases and protocol for the withdrawal are either premature, assumes a fact not established, conclusory or inapplicable. They are patently self-serving and unilaterally rearranges the cosmos of international law and its principles,” the group said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch associate director for International Justice Program Param-Preet Singh said the intention to walk away from the ICC was “unfortunate but it does not shut the door on the prosecutor’s scrutiny of the government’s horrendous track record of grave abuses.”

Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III on Monday welcomed Duterte’s announcement that Philippines is withdrawing from the ICC.

“We will not allow any foreign court to impose upon our sovereignty,” Albano said. “We should resist any interference by any international tribunal lest we become puppets of these nations.”

But opposition and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate warned that Duterte’s withdrawal from the ICC was a “grave setback to human rights and accountability.”

“President Duterte’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute is intended to escape accountability by present and even future officials for crimes committed against the people and humanity. This is ominous,” Zarate said.

“For all the bluster of the present administration in the manner it launched its bloody wars, this withdrawal also means that it is gravely petrified of the long arm of the law and accountability,” he added.

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