The idea was first broached by the lawyer of Edgar Matobato and was quickly seconded by Vice President Leni Robredo. Somehow, you knew it was another of those “made for propaganda” initiatives, all sound and fury, signifying less than nothing.
The plan was to charge President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court, which was created by the Rome Statute as agreed upon and adopted in a diplomatic conference in that city in 1998. The international tribunal, according to Matobato’s lawyer, was the proper venue to hear the alleged “crimes against humanity” committed by Duterte during his 22-year tenure as mayor of Davao City and supposed prime mover of the so-called Davao Death Squad.
This week, Robredo—who really should know better, being a lawyer herself—chimed in, saying that “everyone has a right to file a case” before the ICC. The court “may take cognizance or jurisdiction,” Robredo said, “if it is proven that we have not done anything” about the alleged crimes.
Yesterday, international law expert Rep. Harry Roque, the only Filipino who is qualified to practice law before the ICC, dashed the hopes of both Matobato and Robredo. Roque explained that the ICC will only have jurisdiction over any case “if local courts are unwilling or unable to do so,” meaning if cases filed in the Philippines did not succeed.
Roque said Robredo and others who want to hold Duterte accountable for extrajudicial killings should first file cases before local courts. If these do not get anywhere, only then can they go to the ICC to seek redress of their grievances.
The blogger Sass Rogando Sasot also disputed Robredo’s claim that “everyone has the right to file a case” before the ICC. Sasot said that cases may only be filed only by 1) the self-referral of a member-state like the Philippines, 2) a referral through a UN Security Council directive, and 3) the initiative of an ICC prosecutor. In an earlier YouTube post, Sasot said Matobato’s lawyer has not even gone before the ICC to file an information or complaint, so it is way too early to assume—as some media outlets have—that a case against Duterte is already about to be filed.
According to Sasot, an international law scholar at Leiden University in the Netherlands and a popular pro-Duterte blogger, Matobato’s lawyer will have to convince an ICC prosecutor that there is reason enough to look into Duterte’s case. Only then will the prosecutor prepare a preliminary examination of a case, which will be announced in the ICC website.
The entire process is not as easy as Matobato’s lawyer and Robredo want to make it appear, according to both Roque and Sasot. And “anybody has the right to file a case” may apply here in the Philippines—but getting the ICC into the act will take some doing.
The motivation of Matobato’s lawyer is clear: he is using media to shore up whatever credibility his client has left, after his disastrous Senate testimony on the DDS. As for Robredo, she is in not only because she reflexively supports anything that may lead to Duterte’s removal but also because she believes that she will be the beneficiary of the incumbent’s ouster through whatever means.
Of course, Robredo will, by operation of the Constitution, succeed Duterte if he is ever removed. So perhaps she should just sit tight and not reveal how little she knows about things like the ICC, only because she has to show her constant opposition to the president.
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The Commission on Appointments, which is still wondering what to do with Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez, confirmed the appointment of Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones as education secretary yesterday. Briones, a former national treasurer, defended herself well when asked if she may be physically unfit for the job to which she had been appointed.
“The state of my knees has no correlation with the state of my brain,” said the much-admired former professor of the University of the Philippines. “Liling” Briones, 77, admitted that she has to use a wheelchair sometimes, especially when she boards a plane to travel, because she is not as fit physically as she used to be.
Until her confirmation yesterday, Briones was one of several Cabinet secretaries recruited by Duterte to positions in his official family whose confirmation has long been pending. Apart from Lopez, Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, a firebrand farmer-leader, also remains unconfirmed, reportedly because of his anti-landlord policies that are hurting the rich landowners in Congress.
Yet another key official, Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial, has also not been confirmed yet by the commission. Ubial, a doctor and public-health specialist who rose from the ranks of the department before she was chosen by Duterte to head up the DoH, is facing rough sailing in the CA because of her support for the reproductive health law that pro-lifers in Congress want to keep permanently on ice.