Surrendering to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to bypass the country’s judicial process for the end of removing a personality in the political equation would have a deep repercussion.
For one, the ICC or any other international tribunal that the country is not part of can use the precedence of such intervention to meddle in the country’s affairs.
Leaders of the so-called Quadcom of the House of Representatives are practically begging the ICC to use the results of the body’s proceedings, which shifted from the Philippine Gaming Offshore Operators (POGO) to the war on drugs of former President Rodrigo Duterte, as evidence in the tribunal’s intrusive probe.
The House leaders’ state of mind exposes their poor sense of self-determination and suggests that they will sell out the country for political expediency at the drop of a pin.
Former detainee Leila de Lima even suggested voluntary capitulation, through a law she dug up which supposedly gives the government the option to hand over suspects of a heinous crime to a foreign tribunal, “in the interest of justice.”
The ICC probe had exceeded its authority since the war crimes tribunal was supposed to step in only if the domestic courts could not perform their functions which is not the case in the Philippines.
Another factor going against the investigation is that the country ceased to be a member of the international court which has gained notoriety for running after leaders of small nations while glossing over rights abuses perpetrated by officials of powerful nations.
“The Philippines disengaged completely from the ICC in 2019. It has no legal duty to lend any assistance to the ICC in conducting its investigation. But the Philippine government cannot stop it from proceeding any way it wanted,” Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said.
De Lima and her cohorts in the discredited yellow mob are egging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to consider rejoining the meddlesome body that the country does not need.
The Philippines made the right move in bolting from the Rome Statute that created the tribunal after the ICC allowed itself to become a tool for partisan interests in accepting partial evidence in the war on drugs.
For instance, it based its probe on a complaint by the late lawyer Jude Sabio claiming highly inflated death figures in the anti-narcotics campaign that were all labeled state-sponsored extrajudicial killings (EJKs).
Sabio after a falling out with Trillanes, over retainers that stopped flowing, withdrew the complaint but the ICC still pursued the investigation based on supplemental filings, including those of Trillanes and his Magdalo cohort, former Rep. Gary Alejano.
Sabio died with a grudge against Trillanes for abandoning him after the putschist got what he wanted.
“The Philippines will not return to ICC,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, a retired Associate Justice, said. “Based on this, the President is not expected to change his mind and not refer the Quadcom matter to the ICC.”
President Marcos has a firm conviction that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines and that the country’s justice system is functioning.
Guevarra said the Quadcom should hand over its records to executive branch offices for investigation and prosecution, like the Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation, or the Ombudsman, instead of the ICC.
He said the ICC prosecutor cannot expect “that the Philippine government will facilitate (an investigation) for him.”
Guevarra confirmed that the ICC had sent a formal request for assistance regarding the crimes against humanity probe.
The ICC had listed several individuals who are mostly former administration and police officials in the probe.
The war on drugs probe should be a domestic affair and the ICC can hand over the evidence to local courts if its real intention is to help prosecute alleged abuses in the conduct of the controversial police campaign.