THE Philippines will “reassess” its commitment to the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court should they meddle in the bloody drug war being waged by President Rodrigo Duterte, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Friday.
“We trust that the Court’s exercise of its mandate will respect national processes geared towards exacting criminal accountability for conduct committed within our territory, said Roque who is in New York to address state parties of the International Criminal Court.
“A violation of the very basis for our consent”•which is complementarity”•will constrain us to reassess
our continuing commitment to the Court and the Rome Statute.”
Roque made his statement even as International Justice Program associate director Param-Preet Singh slammed his assurance that the Philippines will give justice to the thousands of Filipinos who died from the war on drugs.
Singh released her statement after Roque delivered a speech during the International Criminal Court’s annual diplomatic conference at the United Nations in New York, asserting the Philippine government’s prerogative to “bring to bear our national criminal justice system upon those who violate our laws.”
“The government’s claims of its preparedness to prosecute offenders is grotesquely deceptive in the face of this grim reality,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, human rights advocates on Friday called on the country’s law enforcers to uphold the culture of life in implementing the law.
Legal and governance expert Tony Laviña said the police and the military should be more cautious in apprehending suspects and weigh the need for force in its operations.
“Human have to be fully respected. The war against communism cannot justify any form of violation of human rights,” Laviña said at the Culture of Life Philippines forum at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Roque said the intervention of the ICC in the affairs of the Philippines should come as a “last resort.”
“In reaffirming our commitment to the Rome Statute and the Court, we are also reminded that the Court is a court of last resort, Roque said.
He insisted that the ICC should be a complementary jurisdiction in the prosecution of persons accused of crimes against humanity and that the Philippines was confident that the ICC “will respect national processes.”
Primary jurisdiction, Roque said, rests in the country’s own justice system.
“The Rome Statute requires the Court and other bodies to respect and defer to the primary criminal jurisdiction of such State Party, unless it can be shown that the State Party is unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute such crimes, Roque said.
He said the Philippines was “prepared to act, as we have always so acted, to bring to bear our national criminal justice system upon those who violate our laws and pose a threat to our national security.”
He also cautioned the ICC member states and leaders against allowing the international court to be “politicized.”
“Mr. President, we urge the Court to resist attempts by some sectors to treat the Court as a venue to pursue political agenda to destabilize governments and undermine legitimate national authorities,” Roque said.
Such efforts “dilute the Court’s mandate” and get in the way of the Philippine government’s efforts to punish those responsible for crimes covered by the Rome Statute.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch, however, accused the Duterte administration of faking its sincerity in efforts to seek accountability for its abuses in the war on drugs.
