Resist attempts for ICC to be used as venue to pursue political agenda, Roque tells the body
(Eagle News) — The Philippines has urged the International Criminal Court to “resist attempts” for it to be used as a venue by some sectors to “pursue political agenda to destabilize governments and undermine legitimate national authorities.”
In a statement issued at the general debate of the 16th Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC at the United Nations Headquarters in New York early Friday morning, Manila time, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque also urged the court to respect “ongoing national proceedings” in relation to crimes, “consistent not only with (the country’s) sovereign right and responsibility to prosecute crimes committed in (its) territory but also with the principle of complementarity that has been the basis for the court’s mandate.”
Roque said the principle of complementarity was specified in the Rome Statute, which the Philippines and the rest of the state-parties anchored their consent on.
He said a “violation of the very basis for our consent” as such “will constrain us to reassess our continuing commitment to the court and to the Rome Statute.”
“We trust that the court’s exercise of its mandate will respect national processes geared towards exacting criminal accountability for conduct committed within our territory,” Roque said.
In May, lawyer Jude Sabio asked the ICC based in The Hague, Netherlands to charge President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 other government officials with mass murder and crimes against humanity for what he said was the government’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs.
A month later, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Magdalo partylist Representative Gary Alejano filed a supplemental communication with the court, claiming that the government had no plans of exacting accountability from Duterte.
For this, they cited what they said was the swift junking of the impeachment complaint filed against the President by the House of Representatives justice panel.
The complaint filed by Alejano was junked by the House’s justice committee for insufficiency of substance in May.
