Philippines taps foreign lawyer in ICC drug war probe

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government has hired international lawyer Sarah Bafadhel to help in the state’s bid to stop the resumption of the drug war probe of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In an interview with CNN Philippines yesterday, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said the government selected the London-based lawyer “as the best international criminal law expert who might be able to assist the Philippines on procedural issues.”

“The Office of the Solicitor General would on many occasions need the assistance of foreign counsels in international arbitration cases, where certain procedures might be something unique or special, for which we are not very familiar,” Guevarra said.

“In this particular case of the ICC, we engaged the services of Ms. Sarah Bafadhel. She is a British barrister. She has her chambers in London, but she is practicing at the ICC,” he added.

According to the website of the “9BR Chambers” law firm where she is employed, Bafadhel “specializes in international criminal law, public international law and human rights law” and “has represented clients in high-profile and complex cases before international and regional courts and tribunals, resulting in landmark decisions which have developed international law.”

The Philippine government will pay for Bafadhel’s legal services in appealing the ICC probe on the previous administration’s war on drugs and in defending the country’s judicial independence, Guevarra said.

He noted that the OSG is defending the republic, and not a particular person – in this case, former president Rodrigo Duterte, the chief architect of the war on drugs and subject of the crimes against humanity complaint before the ICC.

“We are defending our domestic legal and judicial system, because it has the primary responsibility to deal with crimes committed in our own territory. For that purpose of defending our legal system, the primary right of our system to take care of this matter, we may need the assistance of foreign experts, because the venue is not the local court – it’s the ICC,” Guevarra said.

Gueverra, who served as Duterte’s justice secretary, defended the former president’s tirades against drug lords and users, adding that the chief executive’s orders for police to kill them were “hyperbole” and not meant to create a “culture of impunity.”

As for death squads in Davao when Duterte was mayor of the city – another subject of the ICC probe – these have already been investigated here, which means there is no need for a foreign court to reopen it, he said.

The solicitor general maintained the government’s position that the ICC has no jurisdiction to investigate the police killings of drug suspects since the country withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019.

“I had admitted that there were lapses on the part of law enforcement agents. But what I’m saying is, that is not tantamount to crimes against humanity,” he said.