Karapatan calls on government to stop playing ‘sovereignty’ card on ICC drug war probe

Human rights group Karapatan called on the government to stop playing what it described as the “sovereignty card" to supposedly shield former President Rodrigo Duterte and other officials from accountability in the war on drugs.

In a statement released Sunday, Karapatan said the Philippines “willingly, voluntarily, and solemnly” endorsed and signed the Rome Statute, which subjected the Philippines to an international treaty.

“How is it an overreach on the part of the ICC (International Criminal Court) and a departure from the boundaries of its creation when everything was done in accordance with its mandate and procedures, matters that the Philippine government cannot pretend not to know or understand with a straight face and a forked tongue, including its lawyers who should know better,” it said.

The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, in March 2019 during the Duterte administration, with incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. insisting that the country had “no intention” of rejoining the ICC.

This comes after Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla told the United Nations Human Rights Council that the Philippines rejected the ICC’s reopening of its inquiry on the killings during the previous administration’s war on drugs.

The ICC in January authorized the reopening of an inquiry into Duterte’s war on drugs, with Remulla calling the probe an “irritant.”

The government has since expressed its intention to appeal the resumption of the inquiry before the ICC Appeals Chamber.

“When will government officials be honorable and honest enough to admit that the Philippines willingly, voluntarily, and solemnly endorsed and signed the Rome Statute and that complaints filed against Duterte, et. al. were made when it was still covered by the international treaty?” Karapatan said.

“The previous and present Philippine governments sound like a broken, nay discordant, record before the world when they turn upside down and distort basic legal principles to fit their sectarian interests,” it added.

Government records show that 6,200 drug suspects were killed in police operations from June 2016 to November 2021. But several human rights groups have refuted this and estimate the actual death toll at around 12,000 to 13,000.

“The extrajudicial killings connected with the war against illegal drugs were clearly the worst kind among wrongdoings, depriving citizens of their very right to life when they should first be investigated and rehabilitated if they were indeed involved,” Karapatan said. — DVM, GMA Integrated News