Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla on Wednesday, Sept. 28, declared that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has no business meddling in Philippine affairs with the country’s investigative, prosecutorial and judicial systems functioning actively under the rule of law.
Visibly irked but did not lose his composure, Remulla stressed that the Philippines is no longer a member of ICC and that “we submitted the requested documents out of the principle of comity and nothing more, nothing less.”
The press briefing was called to clarify reports that ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan rejected the submissions turned over by the Philippine government and insisted to continue with the probe on alleged crimes against humanity committed in the illegal drugs operations conducted during the time of then President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Last Sept. 8, the Philippine government, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), submitted to the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) the Observation on the Request of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) to Resume Investigation in the Republic of the Philippines.
In his response to the Philippines’ submission, Khan told the ICC-PTC that the investigation should resume since the Philippine government has “not demonstrated – even with its additional submissions – that it has conducted or is conducting national investigations or prosecutions that sufficiently mirror the investigation authorized by the Chamber.”
Khan was reported to have also said that “nothing in the observations nor in the hundreds of pages of associated annexes substantiates that criminal proceedings actually have been or are being conducted in anything more than a small number of cases.”
“Maybe he (Khan) should run for office here if he can,” Remulla said during the press conference.
“The unfortunate thing here is here comes a foreigner who thinks he knows the Philippines more than we do, who thinks it is so easy to run government from our side of the fence,” he said.
Remulla said the Philippine government continues its investigation and prosecution of these cases. “We do everything here in accordance with the rules and the laws of our country,” he said.
“And we all have the Bill of Rights. We know that and we have to observe the Bill of Rights in this country. They cannot run roughshod over our system and say you're a lousy country and you cannot do what we want you to do,” he said. He then asked: “Are they dictating on us on what we should do as a country?”
“If they want to put our people in jail, there has to be a reason for it and there has to be due process first. We have to observe the rights of the people who are accused of committing crimes,” he added.
The incidents being sought for investigation by Khan happened in the previous administration as early as six years ago, he said.
He lamented lack of witnesses to prosecute the cases. That is why, he said, the government renewed calls for witnesses to come forward and help in running after those who committed wrongdoing.
“We are offering witness protection to all those who want to come forward to testify and even to complain,” he added.
Asked what would be his next step, Remulla said: “We will be continuing our inquiries, we will continue our investigations. We are not stopping and we are hoping that there will be more witnesses to come forward. That’s what we need here.”
He also said: “Kung walang testigo paano ang kaso? (If there are no witnesses what would happen to the cases?). Do you think we should convict anybody based on a case that has no witnesses and no evidence?”
“I hope that the ICC will know that Mr. Khan is doing them a great disservice by putting a challenge to our system,” he also said.
He added: “The unfortunate thing here is here comes a foreigner who thinks that he knows the Philippines more than we do. It's very frustrating sometimes but we cannot be frustrated. We cannot make this a reason for us to stop working. We come here everyday to work because it is what we do. It is what we do for the country.”
Please also read: SolGen Guevarra: ‘ICC-PTC has yet to rule on resumption of probe in PH’s illegal drugs war’ https://mb.com.ph/2022/09/28/solgen-guevarra-icc-ptc-has-yet-to-rule-onresumption-of-probe-in-phs-illegal-drugs-war/