THE Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights will start next week its hearing on a resolution that opposes the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) move to investigate the bloody drug war of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
The resolution also asked the Senate to defend the former President from “apparent meddling” of the ICC over the country’s criminal justice system.
In an advisory, the hearing on the resolution will be conducted starting at 3 p.m. on April 19.
Committee chairman Sen. Francis Tolentino said he had already sent invitation to the ICC, but has not received any response.
The committee invited ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan who has been insisting on the probe of Duterte’s infamous drug war.
Khan’s predecessor in the ICC, Fatou Bensouda was also summoned to attend the hearing through teleconferencing.
Tolentino earlier clarified that the forthcoming Senate investigation has nothing to do with the cases before the ICC. He said this will be solely done on the basis of pertinent resolutions filed in the Senate.
Tolentino noted that if the ICC wanted to be recognized by the Philippine government, the panel should attend the Senate hearing.
Duterte was also invited to the hearing, but no word from him yet.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada filed Resolution 492 which seeks a Senate stand against the projected ICC investigation.
Estrada also said no one can tell the Filipino how to run their country, adding that the ICC’s intervention undermines the Philippines judicial system, not to mention the fact that the Philippines was no longer a state party of the Netherlands-based international judicial body.
Estrada emphasized that as an independent nation, domestic sovereignty resides in the Filipino people.
“I stand by our government’s position that we have the first responsibility and right to prosecute crimes committed within our territory,” he said.
“As I have stated in filing Senate Resolution No. 492, the ICC’s insistence on investigating the war on drugs of the Duterte administration is disrespectful of our sovereignty and undermines our fully capable judicial system,” Estrada stressed.
“It (ICC) may only exercise jurisdiction where the national legal systems fail to do so which was not and continue to be not the case insofar as our domestic institutions are concerned,” Estrada said.
Senators Christopher Go and Robinhood Padilla also filed Senate Resolution No. 488 that aims to defend Duterte from the ICC investigation and prosecution.