Philippines government will not assist ICC investigation into ex-president’s ‘war on drugs’ News
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Philippines government will not assist ICC investigation into ex-president’s ‘war on drugs’

Philippine Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Friday that the Philippine government will have to learn more about the intentions of several investigators from the International Criminal Court (ICC) before granting them entry to the country. The ICC intends to enter the Philippines to investigate President Duterte’s “war on drugs,” which took place between 2011 and 2019.

Remulla’s comments come after current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters the government will no longer be involved with the ICC following an unsuccessful challenge to the ICC’s jurisdiction.

The Philippines became a state party to the Rome Statute, and to the ICC by extension, in 2011. Duterte’s administration withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2018 over the developing ICC investigation, a decision that took effect on March 17, 2019. Yet the ICC says that it “retains jurisdiction with respect to alleged crimes that occurred on the territory of the Philippines while it was a [state party].”

The Philippines appealed the ICC’s jurisdiction claims, but these were rejected by the court this week. However, Marcos said he would continue to defend the sovereignty of the Philippines.

Duterte’s “war on drugs” claimed the lives of at least 6,200 people. Some were killed during police operations. Others were killed by unidentified gunmen in unclear circumstances. Other deaths went unwitnessed, and bodies were discovered at dump sites away from crime scenes. Still, others were simply “disappeared”. Many of the deaths lack a paper trail, which makes understanding the breadth of the “war on drugs” difficult. Human rights groups have said the true death toll could be around 27,000. Families of the victims accuse the Duterte administration of violating due process and instilling a “culture of impunity” among the police forces in the Philippines.

In 2019, the Supreme Court of the Philippines heard testimony on the legality of the “war on drugs.” As a result, the Supreme Court ordered the Office of the Solicitor General to release all relevant police reports to human rights groups and victims. Given these proceedings, critics of the ICC say that a new investigation on Duterte would be redundant and that it would threaten the Philippines’ sovereignty to address human rights issues through their own legal institutions.

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