Independent minority solon Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman broke down on the Saturday, Jan. 28 the reasons why the Philippines must participate in the International Criminal Court's (ICC) probe on killings linked to the previous administration's war on illegal drugs.
"The Philippines, as a legitimate member of the world community, must accede to the jurisdiction of the prosecutors of the with respect to former president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs," Lagman said in a statement.
"The rule of law is not limited to parochial confines. It must conform to the world order," stressed the Liberal Party (LP).
"Perforce, the Philippines must submit to the jurisdiction of ICC’s prosecutors over crimes against humanity consequent to the brutal anti-narcotics campaign which were committed prior to the withdrawal of the Philippines from the Rome Statute on 17 March 2018," he said.
Lagman, a human rights lawyers, noted that the principle of complementarity, which respects the jurisdiction of national courts, cannot be invoked by the Philippines "because no less than the alleged principal culprit, former president Duterte, has not been investigated by local authorities nor charged in Philippine courts even as other major reported offenders have eluded justice with impunity".
Critics of the past administration have pegged the fatalities of Duterte's war on drugs to as high as over 10,000
The LP was the ruling party in the country before Duterte took over Malacañang from 2016 to 2022.