Justice for drug war victims up to court – FMJ
By Nidz Godino
“Position that we’ve taken is that we do not recognize jurisdiction of International Criminal Court (ICC)…we view it as threat to sovereignty, simply because ICC was formed to conduct, to provide justice to areas where there is no judiciary, where there is no court system, where there is no police, where there is no peace and order and that’s not Philippines,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said it would be up to Philippine police and judiciary to give justice to those who were killed during previous administration’s drug war.
President Marcos maintained he won’t support ICC’s probe on controversial campaign.
Marcos said inviting ICC to Philippines to investigate former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war is “political move” and that “we do not play politics with jurisdiction and sovereignty…and therefore, I don’t think their investigations or their concerns apply to the Philippines,” he added.
Marcos said Philippines has “functioning” police force and judiciary and “it is their responsibility to take care of that.”
“We have made great deal of progress in that regard where many policemen have already been removed from service because they’ve been found to be liable, cases have been filed…many are already in jail, what we try to do is to now go back to families of those and perhaps, see what we can do to make things right for them…as long as it can be shown, of course, that they were not actually involved in drug trade,” FMJ said.
According to Marcos, his administration is not interested in small-time addicts who should be taken to hospital or undergo rehabilitation.
“We don’t shoot them… we have taken enforcement as far as we can, and it only gets you so far,” he said.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte is facing crimes against humanity complaint over his brutal war on narcotics, resulted in death of more than 6,000 drug suspects.
In 2021, a pre-trial chamber of ICC permitted investigation into drug crackdown, saying legal element of crime against humanity of murder under Rome Statute, treaty created tribunal has been satisfied.
Philippines ratified Rome Statute in 2011 but Duterte withdrew the country from agreement in 2018 in response to ICC’s decision to conduct preliminary examination of his anti-drug campaign.
ICC has insisted Philippines still has obligation to cooperate with probe despite withdrawal.
Duterte has insisted ICC has no jurisdiction over him and that he would only face allegations before local court.
Despite Marcos’ refusal to recognize ICC’s jurisdiction, nationwide poll conducted by OCTA Research last December suggested 55 percent of adult Filipinos are in favor of government cooperating with tribunal on its investigation on drug war.
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