The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) opposed the request of the Philippines to stop the resumption of investigations into the war on drugs campaign of former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
In its request to the ICC, the government reasoned that it lacks jurisdiction over the country, the alleged crimes do not constitute crimes against humanity, and that it has already investigated and prosecuted the crimes or is currently doing so.
“The Prosecution respectfully submits that none of those arguments have merit,” Prosecutor Karim Khan said in his 21-page response dated Sept. 22.
Khan has countered all the arguments that the government affirmed.
First, he said the government cannot use jurisdiction as an argument, citing ICC's Rome statute.
“[T] here is no basis under the Statute for the GovPH to challenge the Court’s jurisdiction during this article 18 litigation, and the Prosecution respectfully submits that this argument should be dismissed in limine,” he said.
He asserted that the government likewise failed to provide any concrete evidence to disprove ICC’s findings that the war on drugs campaign was a “widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population.”
“[T]he GovPH’s gravity challenge is not supported by the facts or the law. The GovPH bases its gravity challenge on the same factual premise as its jurisdictional challenge –the alleged absence of an attack on a civilian population or state policy – but again fails to provide any concrete evidence or information refuting the Chamber’s findings,” Khan added.
He also said the government has not shown that there were past or ongoing national proceedings for the crimes.
“The GovPH argues that its criminal justice system generally functions well and that certain administrative and other mechanisms may or can result in criminal proceedings. However, nothing in the observations nor in the hundreds of pages of associated annexes substantiates that criminal proceedings actually have been or are being conducted in anything more than a small number of cases,” Khan said.
The prosecutor reiterated his request to the Chamber to order the resumption of the investigation.
Last year, the ICC suspended the probe into the suspected human rights abuses following the request of the Duterte administration. Khan then sought for the resumption in June.
The latest data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) shows that 6,201 died during the anti-drug operations and 311,686 were arrested.
