Palace: 'EJK' comment no admission of murder, no ground for impeachment

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Monday disputed claims that President Rodrigo Duterte's latest statement on extrajudicial killings could be a ground for impeachment and could boost the complaint against him before the International Criminal Court.   

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque stressed that Duterte's remark that his only sin is EJK was not an admission of a crime. 

"I’d like to reiterate that the context of what the president said is that EJK are the only criticisms labeled against him and that no one has ever accused him of corruption," Roque said in a press briefing.  

"I don’t think this amounts to an admission because for it to be an admission, or a declaration against interest, he must have explicitly admitted to the crime of murder, which he has not," he added. 

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Roque said former Ateneo School of Government dean Antonio La Viña was "simply wrong" when he claimed that Duterte's remark could be a basis for his impeachment. La Viña said last week that Duterte's admission that EJKs are happening because of him constitutes culpable violation of the constitution.

"He (La Viña) is not a specialist on the field. He's wrong. It presupposes that our judicial system is not working in the first place. Number Two, it presupposes that the president actually admitted to murder. Did he? Not by virtue of the context of what he said," the presidential spokesman said.  

'No judicial killings without death penalty'

Roque said the term EJK is a "misnomer" because there could never be judicial killings in this country because of the abolition of the death penalty. 

"I’d like to emphasize that there is actually no crime under both domestic law or international law as EJK. In fact, this is a misleading term because killing in our constitution and in our laws is never legal so there is no such thing as extrajudicial killings. So it’s either a lawful killing or an unlawful killing," he said. 

Presidential Communications Scertary Martin Andanar made a similar argument about a year ago after the Philippine National Police said it found no extrajudicial killings in 6,225 drug-related deaths it had investigated by then.

“We do not have judicial killing, we do not have capital punishment. It is prohibited to kill in our country. So why is there extrajudicial killing when there is no judicial killing? Why put ‘extra'? So there is no extrajudicial killings in our country. There is no judicial killing, it is not state sponsored, it is not legal, it is not in our Constitution," Andanar said then.

In May 2017, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the government uses Administrative Order 35 to define extrajudicial killings: "Killings wherein the victim was a member of, or affiliated with an organization, to include political, environmental, agrarian, labor, or similar causes; or an advocate of above-named causes; or a media practitioner or person(s) apparently mistaken or identified to be so.”

Cayetano said killings outside the categories in AO 35 are considered either as homicides or murders.

No merit for impeachment complaint

Roque expressed confidence that an impeachment complaint against Duterte would not succeed because of lack of merit. 

"Let him (La Viña) start. He cannot vote because he is not a member of Congress and I'm sure it will also be dismissed by Congress not because it's a political process but because it's utterly bereft of merit," he added. 

With regard to claims that Duterte's statement would strengthen the complaint against him before the ICC, Roque said the court has yet to start its preliminary investigation.

"I am at the very least amused at statements of some of the critics of the president saying that this declaration or so called admission will bolster their complaint in the ICC. I’d like to reiterate that there is no pending preliminary investigation in the ICC as of yet," Roque said.  

"What is pending only is a communication addressed to the prosecutor. It is not yet at the level of preliminary investigation. The prosecutor at this stage is only examining if she should in fact proceed to a preliminary investigation," he added.

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'Philippines has functioning justice system'

Last February, the ICC announced that it would conduct a preliminary examination on Duterte's war on illegal drugs but officials maintained the tribunal has no jurisdiction over the matter. 

The ICC acted on a communication by lawyer Jude Sabio, who claimed that Duterte was behind the deaths of more than 7,000 drug suspects. 

Duterte responded by withdrawing the Philippines' ratification of the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC. Officials claimed the treaty was not binding in the Philippines because it was not published on the Official Gazette, the government's official publication. 

Roque said the ICC could only have jurisdiction over the complaint against Duterte if Philippine courts and prosecutors are unable or unwilling to exercise 
jurisdiction. 

"We have a domestic statute to also penalizing crimes against humanity and therefore it is incumbent upon the complainants to show that the Philippine 
judicial system, the Philippine justice system is simply not working," the presidential spokesman said, 

Roque said every judge in the Philippines country should be insulted by statements claiming that ICC should exercise jurisdiction over the allegations against the president.

"I refuse to concede and admit as a Philippine lawyer, as an officer of the Court, that our Courts are unable or unwilling to exercise jurisdiction. We have a working criminal justice system in the Philippines. Those who have complaints against the president, better file their complaints against him here in the Philippines," he said. 
 
"But I will not concede that we have a judicial system similar to that of Congo, Uganda, Sudan, Central African Republic, Libya, Côte d’Ivoire. I’m sorry if they are in any way slighted by my statement but I stand by that: we have a working criminal justice system."