DOJ's Remulla: We will investigate drug war killings on our own

Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla on Saturday insisted that they would investigate the thousands of killings under the Rodrigo Duterte administration’s war on drugs on its own.

Remulla issued the remark after the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights said that the prosecution of perpetrators behind the killings in the war on drugs "will go on forever" with the current pace of the investigation.

“We will do it on our own,” Remulla said.

Hannah Neumann, vice-chairperson of the subcommittee, said the International Criminal Court's (ICC's) support would ensure that the 6,000 killings would be "investigated properly.”

Neumann added that ICC involvement would help the victims' families and witnesses have confidence that there would be no harassment and intimidation "by the very same people who killed their loved ones.”

Last January, the ICC authorized the reopening of an inquiry into the Duterte administration's war on drugs.

In 2018, then-President Rodrigo Duterte pulled the Philippines out of the Hague-based tribunal's Rome Statute, with the withdrawal taking effect in 2019 after the ICC began a preliminary probe into the allegations of state-sanctioned killings in his war on drugs.

The Philippines earlier called on the ICC not to resume its investigation into Duterte's deadly drug war, insisting the tribunal had no jurisdiction.

Officially, 6,181 people were killed in Duterte's drug war but rights groups say that up to 30,000 may have been killed. — DVM, GMA Integrated News