Potential warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the eight alleged co-perpetrators of former president Rodrigo Duterte will likely be coursed through the International Criminal Police Organization, the same process used in Duterte’s case, an ICC-accredited lawyer said Monday.
Lawyer Gilbert Andres, one of the legal representatives for drug war victims, made the remark amid speculation that arrest warrants may soon be issued against Duterte’s alleged co-perpetrators after the former president lost his case at the pre-trial level.
The ruling committed Duterte to a full trial to determine whether he is guilty of the alleged extrajudicial killings linked to his anti-drug campaign.
“In my view, it will remain the same. It will be transmitted through Interpol since there is a memorandum of agreement, a contract between the Office of the Prosecutor and Interpol,” Andres said in Filipino during a radio interview.
“We expect that in a hypothetical ICC warrant, the government will receive it. It will be executed and implemented by the executive here in the Philippines,” he added.
ICC records showed that Duterte and his alleged co-perpetrators carried out a “common plan” to “neutralize” criminals in the Philippines, including those allegedly involved in illegal drugs. The scheme allegedly involved systematic killings, torture, murder and other crimes.
Among those identified were Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go, former Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and retired Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde.
Others named were former Davao City police chiefs Vicente Danao and Isidro Lapeña, former Davao regional police finance chief Camilo Cascolan and former National Bureau of Investigation Davao regional director Dante Gierran.
Dela Rosa, accused of being one of the chief architects of the anti-drug campaign, has been absent from the Senate since November last year after Ombudsman Boying Remulla alleged that an ICC warrant had already been issued against him.
Since the Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute in March 2019, the ICC warrant against Duterte was coursed through Interpol.
Despite the withdrawal, Malacañang Palace has argued that the Philippines remains bound to execute the warrant because the country is still a member of Interpol.
Andres said Duterte’s alleged co-perpetrators would likely undergo the same procedures used when the former president was apprehended and transferred to ICC custody in The Hague on 11 March last year.
Duterte’s allies and supporters have denounced his arrest as “kidnapping,” citing the country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute.
However, Andres argued that the government still has legal basis to surrender Duterte to the ICC, citing Section 17 of the International Humanitarian Law Act or Republic Act 9851, which allows the extradition of suspected or accused persons to the appropriate international court.
Earlier this week, ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I confirmed all three murder charges against Duterte involving the killings of 78 individuals, including six children allegedly linked to illegal drugs, between 2013 and 2018 during his tenure as Davao City mayor and president.