Lawyer says ICC can tap 125 nations to arrest Bato if he flees

The International Criminal Court can tap the 125 state parties to the Rome Statute to enforce the warrant against Senator Bato de la Rosa in case he flees the Philippines to evade arrest, an ICC-accredited lawyer asserted Monday.

Lawyer Gilbert Andres, one of the common legal representatives for the victims, said the warrant against the embattled former PNP chief can still be pursued by other countries, which are parties to the Rome Statute, as long as they have “domestic law that implements the ICC arrest warrants similar to the Philippines.”

“He can be arrested by the 125 state parties to the Rome Statute and other countries wherever he is,” he said partly in Filipino in a radio interview.

Of the 125 state parties to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, 19 are from the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, Korea, Cambodia, and Timor-Leste.

The African States account for the largest bloc, with 33 countries, followed by Latin America and Caribbean States with 28. Western European and other countries comprised 25, while Eastern Europe accounted for 20.

Andres argued that De la Rosa’s camp’s reasoning that he could only be arrested by virtue of a local warrant is misplaced because the Philippines recognizes any warrant issued by international courts and tribunals under Republic Act 9851.

Section 17 of the law allows the Philippines “to surrender or extradite suspected or accused persons in the Philippines to the appropriate international court, if any, or to another state pursuant to the applicable extradition laws and treaties.”

Andres pointed out that this provision also formed the basis for the Philippines to surrender former president Rodrigo Duterte to the ICC in The Hague.

“For the victims, Senator Bato should be no different from Mr. Duterte. He should also be arrested because there is an ICC warrant and because we enforce RA 9851,” he argued.

In its SC petition filed last week, De la Rosa’s camp cited, among others, Article 59(2) of the Rome Statute as a reason to delay his arrest while he exhausts legal remedies in the Philippines.

The said provision requires the person subject to the ICC warrant to be brought first in the local courts “for a determination of the propriety of the arrest in accordance with the law of that state.”

However, Andres countered that De la Rosa’s camp can no longer invoke such a provision, as the Philippines is no longer a state party to the Rome Statute.

To recall, the Philippines—on Duterte’s marching order—ceased to be a party to the Rome Statute in 2018 after ICC prosecutors launched a preliminary examination into his bloody campaign against illegal drugs. The withdrawal, however, took effect in 2019 in accordance with the tribunal’s rules.

Andres strongly insisted that the administration is at liberty to order authorities to arrest De la Rosa on an ICC warrant pursuant to RA 9851, unless the SC issues a TRO.

De la Rosa has been tagged as “fugitive from justice” after going into hiding since November last year and evading arrest at the Senate last week.

He is facing charges of crimes against humanity over the alleged extrajudicial killings allegedly committed between November 2011 and March 2019—spanning Duterte’s tenure as Davao mayor and as the country’s chief executive.

The warrant alleged that De la Rosa, being the then chief of the Davao police and chief of the Philippine National Police—both under Duterte’s watch—is responsible for the killings of 32 individuals at various locations in the Philippines. He is also named as one of the “co-perpetrators” of Duterte, who has been detained in the ICC since March last year.