Samar court asked to bar entry of ICC probers

MANILA, Philippines —  A petition to bar the entry of International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators has been filed before a Samar court.

Lawyer Fernando Perito yesterday filed before the Regional Trial Court of Calbayog City a petition to bar the entry of ICC probers who would investigate the reported killings during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

In the 12-page petition, a preliminary injunction is being sought to prevent ICC investigators and officers from entering the Philippines or having them deported if they were already in the Philippines.

“With all our laws and rules, policies in order, are we to succumb to international pressure to ignore our existing laws, rules and procedures, simply because that international court is so powerful,” the petition read.

Petitioners also argued that the government should not entertain “any propaganda, outcry or calls” that would allow any ICC prosecutor to resume its investigation, particularly on the “alleged culpability of a very protective President Duterte to his people.”

They challenged human rights advocates to prove their claim that there were at least 30,000 killings during the anti-illegal drugs campaign by filing complaints before the courts in the country.?Petitioners also claimed that accusations of extrajudicial killings and human rights violations against former president Rodrigo Duterte were just “exaggerated hyperboles.”

The Philippine government has maintained that the ICC no longer has jurisdiction after the country withdrew as a member-state.

In January 2023, the ICC decided to resume its inquiry into the Philippines’ war on drugs.

In July of the same year, the ICC’s Appeals Chamber denied the Philippines’ appeal against the investigation of crimes against humanity.

The Office of the Solicitor General, which filed the appeal, had pointed out that the Philippines had already withdrawn as a state-party to the Rome Statute and this took effect on March 19, 2022, before the ICC prosecutor ordered an investigation.

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said the Philippines has “no legal duty” to cooperate with the ICC.

Nothing wrong

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III yesterday said he found nothing wrong if ICC probers entered the country to investigate reported drug war deaths during the previous Duterte administration.

“I find nothing objectionable if they are here,” Pimentel said at a virtual briefing.

He was asked for a reaction to a former presidential spokesman’s claim on social media that ICC investigators entered the country despite the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute.