Malacañang: Deeply disappointing if ICC believes confessed killer's statements

Malacañang on Tuesday said it would be disappointing if the International Criminal Court would believe the statements of a confessed killer.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said they are confident the complaint filed by lawyer Jude Sabio, the lawyer of member of confessed Davao Death Squad member Edgar Matobato, at the ICC will not succeed.

“You know, it would really be deeply disappointing if the court took the word of admitted murder as the basis for action against the head of state who was democratically elected by a Filipino electorate that wants nothing more than an end to an epidemic that has afflicted millions of our countrymen and women that has been responsible for a crime wave that has been terrorizing many parts of our country for decades,” Abella said in a press briefing in Malacañang.

“As far as we can see, it has no basis for prospering,” he added.

Sabio on Monday asked the ICC to charge Duterte and other senior government officials with crimes against humanity for the thousands of deaths amid the administration’s war on drugs.

Abella again defended the centerpiece of the Duterte’s administration.

“We need to understand that the President is waging a war on a brutal enemy, the drug dealers and drug lords who prey upon our people. That is a war that has seen criminals prosper and millions of people addicted to drugs. The related social and financial drain on our country has been immeasurable,” he said.

“It is for this reason that the President is committed to winning this war against drugs and why he is heartened by the efforts of everyone in law enforcement, in national and local government, in public health, are already delivering results that can be felt in all corners of our nation,” he added, pointing out that crime rate has gone down by 30 percent nationwide. 

Abella on Monday said that the complaint against Duterte was meant to embarrass and shame the President ahead of the ASEAN Summit on Saturday.

Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said that the “baseless” complaint is part of a black propaganda against Duterte.

In a Senate inquiry last year, Matobato accused Duterte of ordering the killings of hundreds of criminal suspects when the president was still mayor of Davao City.

Retired policeman Arturo Lascañas had also made a similar claim against Duterte in another Senate inquiry.

Lascañas also confessed that he was a member of the death squad and that they were paid by Duterte for each kill.

Lascañas has fled to Singapore. He was supposed to return to the Philippines over the weekend.

The retired cop said he had opted to stay in Singapore because of the threat on his life. —ALG, GMA News