ICC Appeals Chamber refuses PH appeal to suspend drug war probe
The International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber late Monday rejected the Philippine government’s appeal to suspend the probe into former President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial war on drugs.
“The Appeals Chamber rejects the request of the Republic of the Philippines for suspensive effect of the aforementioned decision of Pre-Trial Chamber I," the ICC decision read.
This was the ICC’s answer to the Philippine government’s plea, which was filed by the Office of the Solicitor General, to suspend and reverse the ruling authorizing the resumption of the investigation on the war on drugs.
According to the ICC Appeals Chamber, the government did not include any reasons and arguments to support its request for ordering suspensive effect.
It also noted that the Philippines also failed to explain “how the alleged absence of jurisdictional or legal basis for the resumption of the Prosecutor’s activities pending the resolution would ‘defeat its very purpose and crate an irreversible situation that could not be corrected’”.
The chamber added that the government was unable to explain the “far-reaching and inimical consequences” of the ICC probe and how broad the scope of the investigation would result in consequences that would be difficult to correct and be irreversible.
“In the absence of persuasive reasons in support of ordering suspensive effect, the Appeals chamber rejects the request. This is without prejudice to its eventual decision on the merits of the Philippines’ appeal against the Impugned Decision,” the chamber said.
Reacting to the news, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said the government will no longer be involved with the ICC.
“We don’t have a next move. That is the extent of our involvement with the ICC. That ends all our involvement with the ICC because we cannot appeal anymore. The appeal has failed. And in our view, there is nothing more that we can do in the government,” Marcos said during an ambush interview.
“And so at this point, we essentially are disengaging from any contact, from any communication I guess with the ICC…We ended up with the same position that we started with and that is we cannot cooperate with the ICC considering the very serious questions about their jurisdiction and about what we consider to be interference and practically attacks on the sovereignty of the Republic. So that’s pretty much it,” he added.
Marcos said that the Philippines has not appeared as a party to the ICC because it does not recognize its jurisdiction.
In a separate interview with ABS-CBN News Channel, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the appeal was only filed for “diplomatic” purposes.
“They will have to come in with a compulsory process for us to be able to work out anything with them. Because right now we are telling them we can do it. Give us your complaint, we will do it. But if they insist on doing it, well, good luck to them because they cannot enter our country to impose a rule of law that is different from ours. Our rule of law here is run by the Philippines,” Remulla said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
