HRW: No 'genuine' gov't efforts for accountability for drug war abuses

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government has not made "genuine" efforts to seek accountability on alleged abuses in its anti-drug campaign, Human Rights Watch said.

The New York-based watchdog issued a strongly-worded statement Friday as a reaction to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s statement that the International Criminal Court is a “court of last resort,”and has no reason to investigate the Duterte administration's war on drugs.

"The Rome Statute requires the Court and other bodies such as the Office of the Prosecutor to respect and defer to the primary criminal jurisdiction of such State Party, unless it can be shown that the State Party is unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute such crimes," Roque said at the international tribunal’s diplomatic conference in New York Thursday (US time).

Saying the country has a "functioning criminal justice system," the presidential spokesperson said: "The Philippines is therefore prepared to act, as we have always so acted, to bring to bear our national criminal justice system upon those who violate our law and pose a threat to our national security."

HRW International Justice Program Associate Director Param Preet-Singh agreed with Roque’s pronouncement that ICC may only step in when national authorities are unable or unwilling to do so.

“Yet his assertion that the Philippine government has been willing and able to investigate those deaths has simply not been true. The government has made no genuine efforts to seek accountability for drug war abuses,” Singh said.

She also noted that there has been no successful prosecution or conviction of cops implicated in summary killings “despite compelling evidence of such abuses.”

Last September 8, the Department of Justice released an inventory of murder and homicide cases allegedly related to the government’s anti-drug campaign. Only 71 murder and homicide cases nationwide have been filed out of the thousands killed in the conduct of the drug war.

In the past, the firebrand leader had repeatedly promised to pardon police officers who would be convicted in the performance of their duties.

“The government’s claim of its preparedness to prosecute offenders is grotesquely deceptive in the face of this grim reality,” Singh said.

She added: “Duterte’s thousands of victims deserve more than empty platitudes in diplomatic circles. They deserve justice.”

Duterte’s war on drugs, which has claimed over 12,000 lives according to rights watchdog, has received strong criticisms at home and abroad.

The government has disputed these numbers. According to the latest #RealNumbersPH data release, there have been 3,967 drug suspects killed in government operations since July 2016. Government officials, including Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, said all of those killed were drug pushers.

The data releases no longer include information on "deaths under investigation," a tally of murders and homicides that police have yet to determine motives for.

Withdrawal from ICC

Roque, who is accredited to appear before the ICC, said the Philippines might consider leaving the international court should it conduct a probe into a complaint filed before it—the same thing that Duterte threatened to do in the past.

“My statement is we agreed to be a member of the ICC because of the principle of complementarity that the court will only exercise jurisdiction if our courts are unwilling or unable to exercise jurisdiction on any crime cognizable by the International Criminal Court,” Roque said ahead of his visit in New York.

Roque also serves as Duterte’s adviser on human rights.

In April, Jude Sabio, lawyer of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, filed a complaint against Duterte and 11 other government officials before the ICC for alleged “mass murder” in the country.

He asked the international court to prosecute Duterte over his involvement in the so-called Davao Death Squad.

The lawyer claimed that Duterte has been waging mass murders constituting crime against humanity from his term as mayor of Davao City under his Davao Death Squad to the present after assuming the presidency through his bloody drug war.

READ: Criminal case vs Duterte filed before International Criminal Court