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Rights groups hail ICC drug killings probe; gov’t moves to block it 

by Leila Salaverria

HUMAN rights advocates said victims of drug war killings in the Philippines have a shot at justice with the decision of the International Criminal Court to resume its investigation into the matter.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the ICC probe offers a chance to “fill the accountability vacuum,” as those behind the killings have yet to be punished up to now.

“The ICC investigation in the Philippines is the only credible avenue for justice for the victims and their families of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous ‘war on drugs.’ As the court’s judges agreed, Philippine authorities are not ‘undertaking relevant investigations’ into these crimes or ‘making a real or genuine effort’ to carry these investigations out,” Robertson said in a statement. 

Credible probe 

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, one of the staunch critics of the killings in the Duterte administration’s drug war, said she welcomes the ICC’s decision “with renewed hope.” 

The government cannot credibly look into killings committed by state agents, Hontiveros said, so it is only fitting for the ICC to step in.  

“Justice requires that an impartial body investigate killings connected to the so-called war on drugs. Justice is not fully served when only the foot soldiers are behind bars,” she said. 

Gov’t to appeal ICC decision

But the Philippine government is not about to let the prosecutors of the Hague-based tribunal look into its affairs. 

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said the Philippines would appeal the ICC decision to resume the investigation into the drug war. 

“It is our intention to exhaust our legal remedies, more particularly elevating the matter to the ICC appeals chamber,” Guevarra said.

The Philippine justice system is working and it is handling the issues related to drug war deaths, he said.

“We wish to emphasize that our own domestic investigative and judicial processes should take precedence, and we can show that despite structural and resource limitations in our legal system, it is still a well-functioning system that yields positive results in its own time,” he said. 

This has been the same contention of the government during its earlier attempts to halt the ICC investigation.

What the ICC said 

In granting the prosecutor’s request to resume investigation into the killings in the Philippines, the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC said it was not satisfied that the country “is undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations on the basis of the complementarity principle.”

The complementarity principle refers to the primary jurisdiction of states when it comes to investigating and prosecuting crime. The ICC will only come in when the state is unwilling or unable to act. 

“After having examined the submissions and materials of the Philippines Government, and of the ICC Prosecutor, as well as the victims’ observations, the Chamber concluded that the various domestic initiatives and proceedings, assessed collectively, do not amount to tangible, concrete and progressive investigative steps in a way that would sufficiently mirror the Court’s investigation,” the chamber said in a statement.

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Banner photo credit: Council of Europe

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