Opposition Senator Leila de Lima on Monday said she is dismayed over the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor to heed the request of the Duterte administration and suspend its investigation into the drug war and killings in the Philippines.
De Lima, a staunch critic of the government’s war on drugs said she hopes that the ICC prosecutor would not fall into the trap of allowing those guilty of the crimes to dispose of the evidence under the guise of conducting an internal investigation.
“(The) ICC Prosecutor must realize that no amount of investigation by the current government authorities will result in the meaningful and genuine prosecution of those guilty of the crimes against humanity, simply because it is these same government authorities who allowed these crimes to continue unabated by not prosecuting the killers,” De Lima said in a statement.
“They are also not expected to because they directly receive their orders from the very architect of the mass murders, President Duterte,” the detained senator added.
Early this month, the Philippine government, through Ambassador to the Netherlands J. Eduardo Malaya, requested the Office of the Prosecutor (OP) to defer to the country's own investigation of Duterte's flagship campaign.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan has notified that the ICC will “temporarily suspend” the investigation to assess the Philippines’ request to defer to the Philippine government in conducting the probe.
But Khan clarified that they will “continue its analysis of information already in its possession as well as of any new information it may receive from third parties.”
De Lima, however, insisted that the Duterte administration’s request to suspend the investigation are all meant to further delay the ICC proceedings, if not for the ICC to entirely defer investigation and prosecution to the Duterte government.
“The ICC Prosecutor must know that none of the purported domestic investigations, including the DOJ’s review process conducted under the aegis of A.O. 35, targets or involves Duterte himself, the top suspect or the person most responsible for these crimes,” she said.
The lawmaker said she can only take comfort in the fact that the suspension of the ICC’s investigative activities is merely temporary and will not take much time.
“For now, we Filipinos, must repose our trust in the Office of the ICC Prosecutor and the ICC institutional mechanisms to achieve true and complete justice for the victims of Duterte’s crimes against humanity,” she said.