MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government wants the International Criminal Court (ICC) to back off and let the country handle alleged cases of extrajudicial killings attributed to former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
In its Friday episode, “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News channel interviewed Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, who said that the best way to handle the drug war deaths is for the ICC prosecutor to allow Philippine legal proceedings “to continue to its logical conclusion.”
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) will represent the Philippine government in the proceedings once the ICC resumes its investigation on the Duterte administration’s alleged crimes against humanity.
Guevarra emphasized that the government will not conduct a joint probe with the ICC on supposed state-sponsored killings for two reasons: first, the country’s legal system is working and second, the Philippines is no longer a member of the international tribunal.
“In other words, do not enter the scene yet because we’re doing what we need to do,” Guevarra said. “Maybe at this time, you are not happy with the results; but this matter takes time. So, just push back a little.”
The solicitor general stressed that the Philippine government intends to show the ICC that the local judicial system, given ample time, would produce significant results in its investigation.
“Give us more time on what we need to do and show you some results,” said Guevarra as if addressing the ICC during the interview.
“Let us do our domestic mechanism rather than the ICC jointly investigating. So, leave us alone for now,” he added in response to a question on how to reach a “point of reconciliation” with the ICC so as to come up with a decision acceptable to both parties.
Last Sept. 8, the OSG submitted its “observations” through the Philippine embassy at The Hague, Netherlands, formally asking the ICC to deny the request of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) to resume its investigation on the past administration’s bloody war on drugs.
After the submission, Guevarra said the ICC will determine whether to give an authority or not to the OTP to resume its probe.
Guevarra reiterated that the Philippine government does not see the need for the ICC to intervene at this point when there are already developments in the domestic investigation.
He cited the significant findings of the Internal Affairs Service (IAS) of the Philippine National Police (PNP), which has been looking into the deaths since the first day of Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign.
“There had already been findings of shortcomings by enforcement agents to the fact that there is willful intent to kill. So, those are the more than 50 cases that were turned over to the DOJ (Department of Justice) by the PNP,” Guevarra said partly in Filipino.
Guevarra, the justice secretary during Duterte’s presidency, recalled that the PNP filed cases against over 100 police officers involved in the questionable operations.
He added that under his watch, 52 cases were referred to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which is an attached agency of the DOJ.
Of the 52 cases, Guevarra said 19 have been resolved. “Some were filed to the DOJ for preliminary investigation and a few were filed in court for trial while several police officers were indicted,” he said.
The other cases were brought before the Office of the Ombudsman.
While the PNP has only referred 52 out of around 6,000 cases, Guevarra said the DOJ had requested the NBI to revisit the cases and closely coordinate with the PNP to determine the possible liabilities of police officers who seemed exonerated.
Guevarra did not deny that there has been a slow development in the cases since there have been difficulties in gathering pieces of evidence and looking for witnesses.