Former Senator Leila de Lima recalled that the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor already mentioned the names of former President Rodrigo Duterte and former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now Senator Ronald dela Rosa as two of the personalities possibly responsible for the state-sponsored killings under the previous administration's war on illegal drugs.
`’’So long as the government is not going after the top leadership of the PNP death squads who committed the killings, the ICC will not be dissuaded from ordering the Prosecutor to resume his investigation on Duterte’s crimes against humanity,’’ she said in a Viber message to Senate reporters.
In her statement, De Lima claimed that the current Marcos administration, through the office of the Solicitor General, seeks to stop the investigation of the widespread extra-judicial killings (EJKs) committed during Duterte’s drug war, "which, I firmly contend, amount to crimes against humanity".
‘’They want the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber to tell the ICC Prosecutor not to resume its investigation. This government says that the ICC has no jurisdiction because the killings were not a systematic attack on the Filipino civilian population and that the Philippine state is investigating and prosecuting whatever crimes were committed. Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra also claims that the killings were not the result of a state policy or program to kill drug suspects in police operations,’’ she stressed.
‘’These porous claims cannot persuade the ICC. The ICC is the least of all to believe these claims considering the amount of evidence already gathered by the ICC Prosecutor showing that the killings were indeed state-sponsored. No less than the public statements of Duterte himself calling on the PNP to eliminate drug suspects are on record in the ICC Prosecutor’s investigation. Guevarra cannot go on denying that Duterte publicly ordered the killings with his arrogant and reckless statements,’’ the ex-senator added.
De Lima maintained that it is "callous and narrow-minded, if not dishonest, for the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to deny the existence of a state-sponsored systematic attack when we all witnessed the prevalent, almost daily occurrence, especially at the height of Duterte’s drug war mid-2016 up to 2017, of summary executions of suspected drug offenders by PNP and vigilante death squads".
She said that the ICC would also just brush aside Guevarra’s claim that the Philippine state is able and willing to investigate and prosecute the drug war killings.
‘’Then and now, the government is unable to show the ICC any convincing proof of the existence of a genuine domestic investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the drug war carnage, particularly those with the highest responsibility therefor. Up to the present, neither the DOJ nor the Ombudsman is in the process of filing any criminal action against Duterte despite his loss of immunity,’’ she emphasized.
‘'The Marcos Jr. government is also not investigating or prosecuting Duterte’s top PNP generals and officers who carried out his unlawful orders during the drug war,’’ she said.
De Lima said that ‘’the Rome Statute is a robust international institution that will not be defeated or dissuaded by the propaganda and rhetorics of Duterte’s defenders and enablers who, sadly, still bear much clout under the present dispensation".
‘’Resisting an intervention by ICC, an international body equipped with the competence and singular determination to inquire into crimes of such scale as crimes against humanity, and beyond the reach of the influence of the strongman former President, connotes a misplaced sense of national self-worth. True justice for thousands of victims of the drug war killings cannot be denied on account of a false notion of sovereignty,’’ she added.