The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) formally asked the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber (ICC-PTC) to deny the request of its Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) to resume its investigation into the controversial war against drugs of the Duterte administration.
In a press statement, Solicitor General Menardo Guevara asserted that the ICC has “no jurisdiction over the situation in the Philippines.”
He reasoned that the alleged murder incidents that happened between July 1, 2016, to March 2019 do not constitute "crimes against humanity”, as the incidents are not considered an “attack” against the civilian population.
“Furthermore, the said occurrences were not in furtherance of a state or organizational policy to commit a such attack," Guevara said.
The SolGen pointed out that local agencies are already investigating and prosecuting the complaints filed before the ICC, which is why the government can not carry out international proceedings.
Citing the complementarity principle, Guevarra said the state-level investigative proceeding must take precedence, and therefore, the OTP’s investigation is deemed “unwarranted”.
The OSG represents the Philippines in the ICC-PTC proceedings.
Guevara said his office has already submitted its observation on Sept. 8 through the Philippine Embassy at The Hague, Netherlands, on the ICC-OTP's request to resume the investigation.
In November last year, the ICC suspended the probe into the suspected human rights abuses due to the request of the Duterte administration.
But days before former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte stepped down from office last June, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan formally requested the resumption of the investigation.
In July, the ICC asked for the victims' comments on the drug war and gave the government until Sept. 8 to respond to prosecutor Khan.
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.
