Lawyer files bid to block ICC entry

A legal petition has been submitted seeking to halt the entry of individuals associated with the International Criminal Court or arranging for their immediate deportation if they are already in the country conducting an investigation into the drug war during the Duterte administration.

Atty. Fernando Perito filed the petition before the Regional Trial Court of Calbayog City as a member of the legal profession. He was joined by overseas Filipino worker Joseph Forrosuelo.    

In a 12-page petition, the two sought the issuance of a preliminary injunction barring ICC investigators and officers from entering the country to investigate the killings related to the past administration's anti-illegal drug war.    

Perito said any investigation, prosecution, trial, and resolution of cases in relation to the anti-illegal drug war is governed by the provisions of the Constitution, existing laws, and criminal procedures.   

"With all our laws and rules, policies in order, are we to succumb to international pressure to ignore our existing laws, rules, and procedures simply because that international court is so powerful," the petition read.   

The petitioners challenged human rights advocates to prove their claim that there were at least 30,000 killings during the anti-illegal drug operations by filing complaints before courts in the country.    

"The country and our government should not entertain any propaganda, outcry, or calls allowing any prosecutor of the ICC to resume its investigation, particularly on the alleged culpability of a very protective President Duterte to his people," the petitioners said.    

They claimed that accusations of extrajudicial killings and human rights violations against Duterte were just "exaggerated hyperboles."    

The Philippines, they said, had ceased to be a member of the ICC, thus, its members should no longer be allowed entry into the country.    

"To allow any prosecutor, investigator or representative from ICC to enter the Philippines with their purpose to investigate, gather sham evidence and stories that were never brought before courts of justice here in the Philippines, will cause grave and irreparable damage to our democracy and justice system," the petition read.    

It added: "They would create unreasonable havoc in our form of dispensing justice to all Filipinos."   

The petition was filed despite the Department of Justice's repeated statement that the ICC lost its jurisdiction over the country following its withdrawal as a member state, and that has not changed.        

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra has also maintained that the government has no legal duty to cooperate with the ICC in its investigation of the drug war since it can no longer exercise jurisdiction after the effectivity of the country's withdrawal from the ICC in 2019.