The Philippines “is not legally and morally bound to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC)” in the investigation on the past illegal drugs operations, Solicitor General Menardo I. Guevarra declared on Tuesday, March 28.
Guevarra’s declaration was issued after the ICC’s Appeals Chamber came out with a ruling on March 27 that denied the Philippines’ request to suspend the investigation pending resolution of the formal appeal filed last March 13.
He stressed that “the decision of the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber authorizing the ICC prosecutor to proceed with his investigation is still on appeal with the Appeals Chamber.”
“We do not know when this appeal will be resolved; maybe in a few months, maybe it will take years,” Guevarra he said.
“Yet the ICC Appeals Chamber has denied our reasonable request to suspend the investigation until the issues of jurisdiction and admissibility of the Philippine situation have been resolved to our satisfaction,” he lamented.
In its March 27 ruling, the Appeals Chamber denied the Philippine government’s request to suspend the investigation due to “the absence of persuasive reasons in support of ordering suspensive effect."
Guevarra expressed his dismay. “We are saddened by this latest development,” he pointed out.
“It tends to humiliate us in the eyes of the international community, and this affront is irreversible and in-correctible even if we eventually win on the merits of our appeal,” he said.
He said “this ruling will have serious and far-reaching consequences to our country.”
“It places us in the same class of rogue nations where the rule of law is not respected. it is an indictment against our entire legal and judicial system, and it encroaches on our sovereignty as an independent and law-abiding nation,” he stressed.
Last March 13, the Philippines – through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) – filed before the ICC’s Appeals Chamber an appeal brief that sought to reverse the decision of the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I that granted the request of the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor to resume the investigation into the drug war killings due to, among others, its lack of jurisdiction.
While the Appeals Chamber has yet to decide on this appeal, the OSG also asked in its appeal brief that the Appeals Chamber order the suspension of the investigation.
Among the points raised in the appeal brief, the OSG said the Philippine government already withdrew as a state party of the Rome Statute that created the ICC and this withdrawal took effect on March 17, 2019 before the ICC gave the order to conduct an investigation in September 2021.
The Appeals Chamber denied the plea for suspension.
Guevarra said the March 27 ruling of the Appeals Chamber has no recourse.
“Under the Rules of the Rome Statute or the International Criminal Court that’s it,” he said.
“Wala na tayo magagawa as a Republic to stop the investigation kasi ina-uthorize na nga na magpatuloy (We can’t do anything as a Republic to stop the investigation because it has been authorized to proceed),” he also said.
During the conduct of the investigation, Guevarra said the prosecutor “could cause the arrest of certain individuals in the country.”
However, Guevarra said the Philippine government will not bother itself on how the ICC will conduct its investigation.
He said “the President (Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.) himself has stated that the government will not cooperate unless and until itong (these) issues about jurisdiction, admissibility, etcetera have been finally settled .”
“The ICC cannot expect any cooperation from the Philippine government at this stage because the issues that we have raised in the appeal have not yet been resolved,” he said.
“It’s so sad and I feel na parang (it seems) ICC is being quite unfair to us,” Guevarra also said in an interview on CNN Philippines.
He recounted that, from the start, the ICC “never gave us any opportunity to see those complaints.”
“Humihingi sila ng maraming information (They asked a lot of information) from us while we are conducting a dialogue,” he cited.
“We gave all those bits of information that they need yet they rejected all of them,” he lamented.
“At this late stage pinayagan nila na magparticipate ‘yung mga so-called victims (the ICC allowed the so-called victims to participate),” he said.
“Well of course we oppose that because of procedural grounds na hindi naman sila nagparticipate doon sa pre-trial yet sa Appeals Chamber ina-allow sila magparticipate (that these victim groups did not even participate in the pre-trial but the Appeals Chamber allowed them to participate),” he added.