Like Arroyo at the House, Padilla wants Senate to 'unequivocally defend' Duterte vs ICC
MANILA, Philippines — Following a similar move by Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (Pampanga) and her allies at the House of Representatives, Sen. Robinhood “Robin” Padilla on Monday filed a resolution asking the Senate to declare its “unequivocal defense” of former President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court.
Padilla, in Senate Resolution No. 488, urged the Senate body — which concurred to the Rome Statute that created the ICC — to defend Duterte “against the investigation or prosecution” by the international tribunal.
The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber, in late January, authorized the reopening of an inquiry into allegations of crimes against humanity in the conduct of the brutal “war on drugs” campaign by Duterte.
Padilla’s resolution, which echoed Arroyo’s at the lower chamber, was filed just days between each other. Adopted resolutions, however, express the chamber’s position but do not have the force of law.
Similar to the Arroyo filing, Padilla also defended Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs” and even cited the arguments raised by the former president himself, such as that the illegal drug problem in the country is “widespread, serious and rampant.”
The senator, whose hands were raised by Duterte during the filing his Certificate of Candidacy in October 2021, also mentioned the supposed “remarkable accomplishments” of the previous administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, insurgency, separatism and terrorism, corruption and criminality.
Padilla also echoed the Arroyo-led resolution that “the Philippines has a functioning and independent judicial system.”
'Unwilling and unable to investigate'
But lawyers for families of alleged “war on drugs” victims have pointed out that lawmakers coming to the “unequivocal defense” of the former chief executive only highlights the need for the ICC to step in as the move only shows that “there can be no fair, comprehensive and objective inquiry” into the thousands of deaths in the bloody anti-narcotics campaign.
“This reiterates that our government is unwilling and unable to investigate, and that the executive and legislative branches of government verily make justice inaccessible. In fact, it reminds us that there is no domestic investigation into acts and omissions of key officials, underway today, at all,” said the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers and Rise Up for Life and for Rights in a statement.
When it allowed the prosecutor to resume investigation into Philippines, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber noted that “domestic proceedings in the Philippines thus do not sufficiently mirror the expected scope of the Court’s investigation, since they only address the physical, low-ranking perpetrators and at present do not extend to any high-ranking officials.” — with reports from Xave Gregorio
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