Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said that the government’s appeal before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over a drug war probe is still pending.
Guevarra, quoted by GMA News, said he had made the clarifications to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The President earlier said the Philippines will disengage from any contact and communication with the ICC after he announced that the government’s appeal supposedly “failed.”
“Yes, I have clarified it with PBBM,” Guevarra told GMA News Online. According to Guevarra, Mr. Marcos directed officials to just wait for the resolution of the appeal.
Guevarra issued the remark when sought for comment over the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) refusal to accommodate the Senate panel’s request to invite the ICC to the hearing on resolutions defending former President Rodrigo Duterte from any investigation and prosecution by the tribunal, GMA News further reported.
The DFA said the agency cannot facilitate their request due to Marcos’ pronouncement about “disengaging” from the ICC.
In March, the ICC Appeals Chamber rejected the government’s appeal to suspend the probe on the drug war while the main appeal on the decision of the ICC pre-trial chamber to authorize the probe is still pending.
The DFA also said did not send a letter of invitation from the Senate to the incumbent prosecutor of the ICC.
In a letter sent to Sen. Francis Tolentino, the DFA said they cannot facilitate the transmittal of the Senate’s invitation to the ICC due to an earlier pronouncement by President Marcos Jr. that the Philippines had disengaged from the ICC.
As chairperson of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, Tolentino will lead the hearings on Senate resolution which seeks to defend former President Rodrigo Duterte from being investigated by the ICC over its bloody campaign against illegal drugs which resulted to the killing of over 6,000 people linked to the illicit drug operations.
Another resolution sought to oppose the conduct of the ICC hearing and insisted that our own criminal justice system remains functioning.
In the said letter, the DFA recommended to Tolentino to send directly the letter-invitation to the ICC especially to Prosecutor Karim Khan and former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
Khan and Bensouda have been insisting to investigate the drug war under Duterte and former PNP Chief, now Sen. Ronald dela Rosa.
Due to this, Tolentino deferred the scheduled hearing last Wednesday.
The DFA also said they passed the invitation to the ASEAN intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights and the Hague Academy of International Law.
Based on the protocol, the Senate passes to the DFA all invitations to other countries or international organizations. Macon Ramos-Araneta