Was ICC taken for a ride?
The ICC prosecutors will never be able to prove anything because their claim is based on fiction and the imagination of De Lima.
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The ICC prosecutors will never be able to prove anything because their claim is based on fiction and the imagination of De Lima.
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Early this week, the prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC) surfaced on digital media, claiming that between 1,500 and 2,000 extrajudicial killing (EJK) victims were buried in the Laud Quarry in Davao City.
The oft-repeated claim included the allegation that the crime was carried out by the Davao Death Squad (DDS) they attributed to former Davao City mayor and president Rodrigo Duterte.
I suspect the recycled allegation was prompted by defense counsel Peter Haynes’ petition to the ICC Trial Chamber to order the prosecution to refile the charges against Duterte, arguing that the prosecution had violated Duterte’s right to be informed of the specific nature of the charges.
The defense also asked the ICC “to revise its electronic filing protocols regarding a sharp increase in pre-trial evidence submitted by the prosecution ahead of the scheduled trial.” (It can be recalled that when the former president was kidnapped and flown to The Hague, Netherlands, a charge sheet was read to him wherein he was accused of a crime against humanity for the alleged extrajudicial killing of 43 persons.)
The defense petition makes a lot of sense because the verdict would depend largely on the number of victims. The inchoate assertion of the prosecution that 1,500 to 2,000 EJK victims were buried in the abandoned quarry was therefore a dubious attempt to bloat the number, firstly to prove that the crime fell within the scope of a “crime against humanity,” and secondly to elicit public outrage and condemnation.
The number of victims, however, does not support the claim of the prosecution that there were that many EJK victims buried in the abandoned quarry, and neither does it prove the existence of the so-called DDS.
The indubitable fact is that in 2009, the Commission on Human Rights, then chaired by Leila de Lima, started digging up several sites at the quarry. De Lima and those who came after her were never able to come up with a single piece of evidence. This is the crux of the case that was raised against Duterte.
It was De Lima who extrapolated the number of alleged EJK victims and made the public believe in the existence of the DDS.
The ICC prosecutors will never be able to prove anything because their claim is based on fiction and the imagination of De Lima. They should also take into account that De Lima held various positions of influence — after her stint at the CHR, she was appointed secretary of Justice and then was elected a senator in 2016.
Today she is a member of the Lower House of Congress as a party-list representative. That spanned almost 20 years since she accused Duterte of EJKs and organizing the DDS. In those positions of power and over the length of time, De Lima has yet to prove her claim with a single piece of evidence.
The reason ICC prosecutor Robynne Croft cannot back up her guesstimate is simple. The DDS is a myth. It was psychological warfare conceptualized by then Integrated National Police Regional Commander Col. Dionisio Tan-gatue Jr. against the vicious liquidation squad of the New People’s Army, circa 1984-1985. It was a phantom force. The EJK issue, therefore, is as farcical as the DDS. Ergo, no matter where they dig in that abandoned quarry, they will not find anything. Again, not a single piece of evidence.
In short, the ICC has been had by politicians consumed with putting an end to the Duterte brand of leadership. It cannot be denied that former president Duterte enjoyed the unprecedented highest trust and approval ratings even after he had bowed out of power. His pronouncements still hold sway.
Toxic politics and greed for power have become even more rapacious today with the indecent plot of Malacañang and the now-fractured House of Romualdez to stop Vice President Sara Duterte from running in the 2028 presidential elections.
The cabal has subjected her to an impeachment trial with nary any evidence, and there was an insidious attempt to place her behind bars, with a Regional Trial Court issuing a warrant of arrest over charges that were filed in the impeachment court.
The consolation these days is that the nation wants a regime change stirred by the failure of the government to arrest the decline in the economy and to solve the problem of incessant flooding and corruption.
