EDITORIAL - Local prosecution

Following the marathon appearance of former president Rodrigo Duterte at the Senate last Monday, the Blue Ribbon subcommittee is making available to the public the transcripts of the proceedings. Lawmakers led by the subcommittee chair, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, along with human rights advocates are hoping that the transcripts will be used to prosecute Duterte and his former officials for crimes against humanity in the bloody crackdown on illegal drugs.

Pimentel has one particular hope – that foreign entities won’t beat Philippine prosecutors in using the Blue Ribbon proceedings to indict Duterte. The International Criminal Court is expected to issue arrest warrants for Duterte and several of his former officials for the offense of murder as a crime against humanity. The ICC has been looking into the issue since Duterte’s presidency.

In line with the policy of the Marcos administration, the Philippine government is not cooperating directly or formally with the ICC since the country has withdrawn from the Rome Statute that created the court. Pimentel said the ICC is free to access Senate transcripts. Whether the Senate will certify the transcripts for ICC use as evidence, however, will still have to be decided on possibly by the entire chamber, he said.

But the Senate will readily certify the transcripts for use by Philippine prosecutors, according to Pimentel. The country has a law enacted way back in 2009, Republic Act 9851, which defines and penalizes “crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity.”

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra has cited the difficulty of building a case for crimes against humanity in relation to the thousands of drug suspects killed by police during Duterte’s presidency. Witnesses, including potential state witnesses from the police, aren’t coming out, and even relatives of victims are reluctant to pursue complaints, according to Guevarra.

This task should now be easier, with Duterte himself claiming full “legal and moral responsibility” for his bloody war on drugs, and admitting that he unleashed a death squad against drug personalities when he was mayor of Davao. While the Senate Blue Ribbon is focused on drug killings during Duterte’s presidency, there is no prescription period for the offenses covered by Republic Act 9851, so prosecutors can use his statements for pursuing the appropriate cases against him. Failing to do so may be seen as a dereliction of duty. And Pimentel is right: it would be disappointing if the ICC beat Philippine prosecutors to it.