Senator Leila de Lima on Monday found the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) suspension of its Philippine drug war investigation “most disappointing,” adding that the Duterte government’s probe would not prosecute “killers” in the anti-drug campaign.
“The decision of the ICC Prosecutor to suspend the investigative activities in the Philippines in light of the request of the Duterte government is most disappointing,” said de Lima in a statement issued from Camp Crame, where she is detained over alleged drug charges.
“The reasons advanced by the Duterte government for the suspension of the investigation are all meant to further delay the ICC proceedings, if not for the ICC to entirely defer investigation and prosecution to the Duterte government.”
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, assigned to look into the drug war, bared that they would temporarily halt the probe as they assessed the Philippine government’s request to defer the investigation.
The Philippine government’s request for a deferral cited the Department of Justice’s referral of 52 cases, in which the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service found administrative liability on the part of the concerned personnel, to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
De Lima, a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, argued that the DOJ review process did not target the President who vowed to wage a relentless campaign against narcotics.
“The ICC Prosecutor must know that none of the purported domestic investigations, including the DOJ’s review process conducted under the aegis of A.O. 35 targets or involves Duterte himself, the top suspect or the person most responsible for these crimes,” the senator explained.
Nevertheless, de Lima said she hoped that the temporary suspension would not “take too much time.”
“We simply have to repose our trust in the Office of the ICC Prosecutor and the ICC institutional mechanisms to achieve true and complete justice for the victims of Duterte’s crimes against humanity,” said the senator. — DVM, GMA News
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