PDEA belies ICC’s ‘basis’ to prosecute Duterte

MANILA: The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) refuted the International Criminal Court’s findings after the tribunal said it found “reasonable basis to believe” President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug wars perpetrated crimes against humanity.

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s office earlier said that it was “satisfied” the information that crimes against humanity were committed in the country’s anti-narcotics operations since Duterte assumed presidency in 2016. ICC prosecutor finds ‘reasonable basis’ for alleged crimes against humanity in Duterte drug war But the PDEA said the tribunal’s findings are “solely on the basis of open-source information.”

“Like all other well-founded reports, the ICC report should show proof and undergo the standard validation and vetting process before arriving at any firm conclusions,” the agency said.

ADVERTISEMENT

The PDEA stressed the international court should have waited for the release of the report of the country’s inter-agency panel molded by the Department of Justice to probe the drug-linked killings “rather than issuing general statements that are yet to be proven without the aid of a formal and local investigation.”

The agency cited the resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which would provide technical cooperation and capacity-building for promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines instead of launching an independent investigation.

“Coming from the UNHRC, it is a credible testament that there lies an insufficient substantiation that extra-judicial killings exist in the Philippines,” the PDEA said.

ADVERTISEMENT

Rights groups however had said the resolution falls short of launching an independent international probe into the human rights situation in the country.

“PDEA is optimistic that the ICC judges will decide against pursuing an open investigation into the situation in the Philippines predicated on the principle applied on the previous rulings of its pre-trial chamber due to the absence of cooperation from the accused country, where the ICC has territorial jurisdiction,” the agency said.

Malacañang earlier said the ICC would just waste its efforts, saying the international court has no jurisdiction over the Philippines following its withdrawal last year from the body.