MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa admitted Thursday he is avoiding traveling to countries he perceives to be "loyal" to the International Criminal Court to evade potentially getting arrested should the tribunal issue a warrant for him.
"As of now, I don’t know if I will travel abroad and the country I will go to is an ICC country," Dela Rosa said in Filipino in a virtual news briefing. "It would be difficult if a warrant is issued against me while I’m in another country."
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ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan is still investigating alleged crimes against humanity committed in the course of the “war on drugs” during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte which was engineered by Dela Rosa who was police chief at the time.
There is still no case against anyone before the ICC in connection with the"“war on drugs," although Dela Rosa said he has tapped the services of Sen. Francis Tolentino to lawyer for him should he get arrested abroad.
"Just in case in extreme circumstances wherein I travel to an ICC member country and they actually implement the warrant and I am arrested, then I need the services of a lawyer," Dela Rosa said.
Constitutional prohibition
Article VI, Section 14 of the Constitution does not allow lawmakers to “personally appear as counsel before any court of justice or before the Electoral Tribunals, or quasi-judicial and other administrative bodies.”
Despite this constitutional prohibition, Tolentino appears set to represent Dela Rosa before the ICC as he said Wednesday he will seek clearance from Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri for this purpose.
But even Dela Rosa is unsure whether this will fly.
"I don’t know. He’s the lawyer. He’s in a better position to know how to remedy this," he said when asked about the constitutional provision.
While Dela Rosa said he is confident Zubiri will allow Tolentino to represent him before the ICC, he quipped that he will be constrained to find someone else should this request be denied.
ICC face-off at Senate?
Tolentino is also the chairperson of the Senate justice panel, which he said might conduct a hearing on the resolutions filed in the Senate seeking to defend Duterte from the ICC probe.
Dela Rosa echoed Tolentino’s push to invite resource persons from the ICC, including Khan. The former top cop said he wants to ask these guests why they are insisting on investigating the Philippines and for them to prove that the country’s justice system is not functioning.
The administration of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. adopted the same stance of his predecessor, Duterte, in rejecting cooperation with the ICC as it argued that it has no jurisdiction over the country following its withdrawal from the tribunal in 2017.
The ICC maintains it still has jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed before the Philippines’ withdrawal and has recently junked the country’s request to suspend Khan’s investigation pending its appeal to completely scrap the probe.
The Marcos administration has protested this decision, with the president himself saying the Philippines would "disengage" with the ICC moving forward. Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra clarified, however, that the ICC is still resolving the Philippines’ appeal to completely stop the investigation.