MANILA, Philippines — Challenging the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction to probe into the Duterte administration's "drug war" is among the options government lawyers are considering, the Office of the Solicitor General said Monday morning.
This comes after the ICC invited the Philippines to provide "observations" on the prosecutor’s request to allow the resumption of its preliminary investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed in relation to the bloody campaign against illegal drugs.
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In a text message to reporters, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra — justice secretary to former president Rodrigo Duterte — said the government is still considering its options "such as challenging the jurisdiction of the ICC [and the] admissibility of the case, or continuing to leave our lines of communication with the ICC open."
The Duterte administration took the position that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the "drug war" cases since domestic processes for accountability exist and are working. The Philippines left the international court in 2019, claiming ratification of the Rome Statute was not valid because it had not been published in newspapers.
"We shall decide on our final course of action after consultations with the [Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Justice], international law experts, and the Office of the President."
To recall, the ICC in June formally requested judges of the pre-trial chamber to move forward in the probe into Duterte’s "war on drugs" after it determined that the Department of Justice-led panel assessment was a mere "desk review." The chamber has not yet made a decision on this request.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out against the ICC by pulling out of the global court in response to its preliminary investigation into his administration's anti-drug campaign.
The national government's "Real Numbers PH" program which aggregates statistics from all anti-drug agencies acknowledges 6,252 "drug personalities" killed in official police operations as of end-May 2022. Human rights groups say the death toll could be much higher than official figures, since deaths have also been attributed to vigilantes and to clashes between drug syndicates.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his Cabinet officials have said that they would continue the Duterte administration's "war on drugs" with a more pronounced focus on human rights and targeting drug use at its source. — Franco Luna with a report from Kristine Joy Patag and The STAR