Ex-Ombudsman Morales: Philippine, US jurisprudence says VP not immune from suit

The jurisprudence in the Philippines and even in the United States provides that a vice president is not immune from any suit or criminal liability, former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said Friday.

In a virtual press briefing of 1Sambyan for President Rodrigo Duterte’s last State of the Nation Address, Morales said she is not confident that "hope" is coming during the president's last few months in office.

“I don’t think hope is coming because the president is now aligning himself to run for vice president because he believes that if he is a vice president, that is on his assumption that he will win, he will be spared from any criminal liability,” Morales said.

“But of course that has been proven wrong because the vice president as far as the Philippine and even the US jurisprudence is concerned, a vice president is not immune from suit, from any criminal liability and that dates back as far as US jurisprudence is concerned, 217 years ago,” she said.

At the same press event, 1Sambayan lead convener, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, said the International Criminal Court (ICC) may still hold Duterte liable for the alleged drug war killings whether he is a sitting president or not.

“If the ICC decides to proceed with the preliminary investigation, the formal investigation, then it doesn’t matter whether he is still an incumbent president or not. The ICC will proceed if they want to proceed whether you are a sitting president or not,” he said.

Former Human Rights commissioner Etta Rosales also mentioned that Duterte’s deliberate violation of the Constitutional principles and statutory laws may be considered as added evidence that may convince the ICC to push through with their investigation.

“The evidence precisely that made him decide, which he deliberately violated— constitutional principles, international standards and even statutory laws— would provide the added evidence for the ICC to decide whether to push through with the investigation or not,” she said.

“And I really hope that they will really push through because I think this is the ideal situation where we can make our people understand that it is only when the government is unwilling or unable to investigate violations of human rights and criminal law that the ICC should actually take place,” she added.

Over the weekend, Duterte said he will run for vice president should his critics continue to  threaten him with criminal charges once his term is finished on June 30, 2022.

Duterte was referring to Carpio and former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV who previously said that the President can be held liable over drug war killings, if not tolerance of Chinese incursions within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in West Philippine Sea.

Duterte, however, maintained that the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, is not part of domestic law. “They will never have jurisdiction over my person, not in a million years,” he said.

Former ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, before her retirement, asked the ICC to probe the Duterte administration’s drug war since there is “reasonable basis to believe that crimes against humanity has been committed in the context of the drug war.”

Bensouda, in a 52-page report, cited police, human rights groups, media reports and confidential sources in concluding that the drug war killings which numbered over 20,000 had a pattern of killing suspects who are not resisting arrest, with some even begging for their lives to be spared. —KBK, GMA News