MANILA, Philippines — The Free Legal Assistance Group, among the lawyers’ groups that assist victims of the “war on drugs” in court, urged the International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor to lift its suspension on the investigation into the Philippines.
FLAG, through its chairman Chel Diokno, wrote to the ICC Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan and asked his office to proceed with the investigation.
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“FLAG understands that your decision to suspend the investigation is largely in response to the deferral letter dated 10 November 2021 where the Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands cited, among others, the Department of Justice ‘thorough investigations’ into 52 killings which occurred between 2016 and 2020,” they said.
The ICC last weekend said it would suspend investigative activities for the time being "while it assesses the scope and effect of the deferral request" filed by Manila.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s government largely relies on the principle of complementarity in its defense in the ICC investigation. In the Philippine government’s letter to the ICC, they noted that the country has the “first responsibility and right to prosecute international crimes.”
But the lawyers’ group pointed out that the cited investigation merely relied on documents provided by the Philippine National Police and only covered a small fraction of killings under the bloody “war on drugs” by the Duterte administration.
Less than 1% of total killings in ICC review period
“The DOJ ‘investigation’ adverted to in the Philippines’ deferral letter covers only a fraction of the killings or attempted killings which occurred within the scope of the ICC investigation,” FLAG said.
They also noted that only 36 cases reviewed by the DOJ occurred between July 1, 2016 and March 16, 2019, and this number only accounts for 0.12% to 0.3% of the 12,000 to 30,000 persons killed during the said period, which is covered by the ICC investigation.
The DOJ review also did not cover killings in Davao between Nov. 1, 2011 and June 30, 2016, which the ICC said it will look into.
While the DOJ also looked into 300 cases for its initial report, the lawyers’ group stressed that parameters, scope and results of the assessment have been withheld from the public.
In a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in February, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said police failed to follow protocols in many anti-drug operations. This was contained in a report sent to Duterte.
READ: Case build-up starts on possible 'war on drugs' abuses from 2016
Reliance on police documents
The lawyers’ group also asserted that it is misleading to label the DOJ actions as an ‘investigation’” as the department, in its review of 52 operations that resulted in deaths, only covered files as provided by the Philippine National Police’s Internal Affairs Service.
FLAG pointed out that based on the matrix made public by the DOJ, it is apparent that the department did not confirm the documents, nor it did identify others who may be involved in the killings, including officials in the chain of command.
DOJ also did not comment on the “inconsequential penalties” meted out on police involved in the deadly operations.
The matrix showed that in most of the cases, police were only suspended over their involvement in operations where suspects were killed. Only four resulted in dismissal from service.
“The imposition of IAS/PNP penalties—and the DOJ silence on the penalties imposed by IAS/PNP—reveals how the Philippine government views the killings,” they said.
“The DOJ ‘investigation’ did not include any findings or conclusions, but mere ‘observations,’ largely on the lack—or paucity—of documents provided by the IAS/PNP. Witnesses or survivors were not interviewed; family members did not participate in the DOJ ‘investigation,’” FLAG also said.
The lawyers’ group also asserted that Philippine law and jurisprudence hold that in cases where a law enforcer kills a person in “self-defense,” the burden of proof is upon the state officers. “Yet, the DOJ ‘investigation’ instead placed the burden upon the victims and/or their heirs,” FLAG told the ICC.