Myanmar refugees appeal to DoJ anew

Five Chin ethnic refugees from Myanmar on Wednesday renewed their plea for the Philippines to initiate criminal proceedings against Myanmar junta officials for alleged war crimes.

Their renewed request is spurred by the Philippines' recent enforcement of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against former President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a motion filed Wednesday, the refugees -- who fled the Myanmar military regime -- urged the Department of Justice (DoJ) to reconsider its earlier refusal to investigate their complaint against Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and nine other Myanmar military officials.

They explicitly cited Duterte's arrest as evidence that "the Philippines recognizes the demands of international justice."

The motion said that recent developments have shown that the Philippines recognizes the demands of international justice, pointing to the decision of national authorities "to arrest and surrender a former president of the Philippines to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court."

Their original complaint, filed in October 2023, accused Myanmar's military junta of committing war crimes in Chin State under Republic Act 9851, also known as the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law.

However, the DoJ’s prosecutor general declined jurisdiction in February 2024, citing a lack of Philippine connection as neither the victims nor the alleged perpetrators were Filipino, and the alleged crimes occurred in Myanmar.

Myanmar has been in a state of civil war since the military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. The coup triggered nationwide protests that evolved into armed resistance following the junta's violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators.

Since then, the junta has conducted widespread aerial bombings, arbitrary arrests, torture, and executions across the country, leading to what the United Nations has described as a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe.

More than 2.6 million people have been internally displaced, and over 70,000 have fled to neighboring countries.

The Chin people, a predominantly Christian ethnic minority concentrated in western Myanmar, have faced severe persecution since the coup, alongside the Rohingya Muslims who have endured longstanding discrimination and violence in Myanmar.

Atty. Romel Bagares, counsel for the complainants, cited the 2011 Supreme Court case Bayan Muna v. Romulo, which recognized the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious international crimes.

"Under the Philippines' hybrid constitutional and legal system, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are subject to the mandatory universal jurisdiction of Philippine courts under the jus cogens regime," the motion argued, referring to fundamental principles of international law.