SolGen to ICC: We don’t need you
‘We have to consider the number of incidents, the right of respondent law officers to due process, the willingness of witnesses to come out and testify, resource constraints, etc’
Daily Tribune‘We have to consider the number of incidents, the right of respondent law officers to due process, the willingness of witnesses to come out and testify, resource constraints, etc’
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra has stood firm on the government position that there is no need for the International Criminal Court to continue with its planned investigation of the drug war initiated by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Guevarra said the important thing at the moment is that the government law enforcement and judicial system are functioning well.
"The different agencies of the government are doing their assigned tasks and functions if there is something that happened in its anti-drug and criminality campaign," Guevarra said.
"If there is something like that, why is there a need to interfere when in fact we are doing the investigation? Hindi namin kayo kailangan, if the legal and judicial system is well functioning."
Earlier, Guevarra said the pre-trial chamber of the ICC has not ruled on the proposal to resume the probe of alleged crimes against humanity committed in the illegal drugs operations during the term of Duterte.
"What was published recently was the ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan's response to the Philippine government's position on the issue," Guevarra said.
Last 8 September, the Philippine government, through the Office of the Solicitor General, submitted to the ICC-PTC the observation on the request of the Office of the Prosecutor 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 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."
But Guevarra assured, "all questionable incidents where deaths of drug suspects occurred have been investigated or are currently being investigated." He added, "This process takes time to yield results."
"We have to consider the number of incidents, the right of respondent law officers to due process, the willingness of witnesses to come out and testify, resource constraints, etc.," he explained.