Planned exit from ICC ‘won’t absolve Duterte’

Manila: The Philippines’ withdraws from the International Criminal Court (ICC) will not clear President Rodrigo Duterte from perceived crimes against the people, critics said.

“Our withdrawal does not mean that the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war cease to be crimes in the Philippines,” Catholic priest Ranhilo Callangan Aquino, an expert in law and legal philosophy, said. “In the first place, the crimes defined in the Statute of Rome are contained in the Geneva Conventions, and are also codifications of customary international law. They remain crimes in international law.”

On Sunday, APF reported that the Philippines has formally quit from the ICC.

“The Secretary-General… informed all concerned states that the withdrawal will take effect for the Philippines on March 17,” UN spokesperson Eri Kaneko was quoted as saying.

The Philippines’ decision to officially withdraw from the ICC came a year after Duterte told the United Nations body that it was quitting the tribunal.

Earlier, several African nations quit the ICC over the tribunal’s perceived bias.

Various groups, from left-wing activists to human rights organisations, want the Duterte administration held accountable for the deaths thousands of Filipinos under his administration’s anti-criminality campaigns such as Oplan Double Barrel and Tokhang.

In 2017, lawyer Jude Sabio said Duterte should account for the deaths under his administration.

“His very own public pronouncements inciting the killings are more than enough proof of the ‘widespread and systematic attacks against civilians,” a group of complainants under the Rise Up coalition earlier said in filing a case against Duterte.

Duterte, who is also a lawyer, has said that the ICC has no jurisdiction over him since the country’s judicial system still functions.

His spokesman and legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the ICC can only assume jurisdiction over Duterte if the country’s system of justice had broken down.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said the president is not avoiding accountability.

“There’s nothing to dodge. Or have you already prejudged as convictions allegations of suspicions? I got us out of ICC because that woman was like the Queen in ‘Alice in Wonderland’: ‘First the judgement! Then the trial!’” he had tweeted.