EDITORIAL – Cooperating with the ICC

Even before former senator Antonio Trillanes IV disclosed that about 50 former and incumbent police officers had been contacted by the International Criminal Court, there were already reports circulating that the ICC was proceeding with its probe of the drug killings under the watch of Rodrigo Duterte. Some of the reports emanated even from the Duterte camp.

President Marcos has yet to announce whether his administration has finished “studying” the possible return of the Philippines to the ICC. In the meantime, he has maintained the stand that the ICC has no reason to conduct its probe in the Philippines, where the judicial system is fully functional.

ICC probers are unlikely to be allowed to conduct a full-blown formal investigation in the Philippines. The Department of Justice and the Philippine National Police have warned PNP members in the active service of sanctions if they defy the government’s policy against giving ICC jurisdiction over the complaints arising from Duterte’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs.

The government, however, cannot stop the ICC from conducting an informal probe from outside the country, or from collecting testimonies and evidence or getting in touch through digital media with witnesses and participants in Duterte’s war on drugs, particularly those who are no longer part of the PNP.

What the government can do is to intensify its own efforts to ferret out the truth and render justice. The PNP has officially listed over 6,000 people, all of them mere suspects, who were killed in anti-narcotics operations during the Duterte presidency. How many of the killings were justified in the context of law enforcement, and how many can be classified as extrajudicial?

The ICC probe includes drug killings in Davao City when Duterte alternated with his daughter, now Vice President Sara Duterte, as mayor and the Philippines was still a member of the ICC. Does the Marcos administration have the political will to investigate those complaints?

Rodrigo Duterte is being probed by the ICC for possible murder as a crime against humanity in his brutal campaign. The Philippines has a law governing crimes against humanity. But Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra has said a sufficient number of those 6,000-plus drug killings would have to be thoroughly reviewed first before the government can determine if an indictment for crimes against humanity is warranted and can stand in Philippine courts. This process, however, is crawling along, and risks being overtaken by the ICC probe. Perhaps the latest developments can spur faster action in the government’s own probe.