(Eagle News) – This is “not an investigation.”
No less than the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who recently opened a preliminary examination on the complaint of alleged crimes against humanity filed against President Rodrigo Duterte, said this to clarify her action.
ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda “emphasized” this in a statement released by the ICC as posted on its website on February 8.
“I emphasize that a preliminary examination is not an investigation,” Bensouda said, “but a process of examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation pursuant to the criteria established by the Rome Statute.”
The complaint before the ICC was for crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the Duterte government in its drug war campaign. It was filed by a Philippine lawyer, Jude Sabio, legal counsel of Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed hired killer based in Davao who is facing a string of cases for murder and kidnap for ransom.
-Issues of jurisdiction to be considered”
Bensouda admitted that as a prosecutor of the ICC, which is covered by the so-called Rome Statute that created it, she “must consider issues of jurisdiction, admissibility and the interests of justice in making this determination” of reasonable basis to proceed.
She said this is particularly spelled out “under article 53(1) of the Rome Statute, I” which is also known as the ICC statute.
The ICC prosecutor also pointed out that “in conformity with the complementarity principle, which is a cornerstone of the Rome Statute legal system, and within the framework of each preliminary examination, my Office will be engaging with the national authorities concerned with a view to discussing and assessing any relevant investigation and prosecution at the national level.”
“The preliminary examination of the situation in the Philippines will analyze crimes allegedly committed in this State Party since at least 1 July 2016, in the context of the “war on drugs” campaign launched by the Government of the Philippines. Specifically, it has been alleged that since 1 July 2016, thousands of persons have been killed for reasons related to their alleged involvement in illegal drug use or dealing. While some of such killings have reportedly occurred in the context of clashes between or within gangs, it is alleged that many of the reported incidents involved extra-judicial killings in the course of police anti-drug operations,” she said in her statement.
A video of the ICC prosecutor delivering her statement was also posted on the ICC’s official website.
She said that since 2016, she had “closely followed the situations” in the Philippines and Venezuela which are both State Parties to the Rome Statute.
Bensouda opened the preliminary examination on both the Philippines and Venezuela, regarding complaints lodged with the ICC earlier.
“Following a careful, independent and impartial review of a number of communications and reports documenting alleged crimes potentially falling within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “the Court”), I have decided to open a preliminary examination into each situation,” she said.
-Independent, impartial-
“In the independent and impartial exercise of its mandate, my Office will also give consideration to all submissions and views conveyed to it during the course of each preliminary examination, strictly guided by the requirements of the Rome Statute,” she explained.
Bensouda said “there are no statutory timelines on the length of a preliminary examination.”
She said that everything will depend on the “facts and circumstances” of the Philippine situation which she would then assess if there is “reasonable basis to proceed” to an investigation.
“Depending on the facts and circumstances of each situation, I will decide whether to initiate an investigation, subject to judicial review as appropriate; continue to collect information to establish a sufficient factual and legal basis to render a determination; or decline to initiate an investigation if there is no reasonable basis to proceed,” she explained.
“I reiterate that my Office undertakes this work with full independence and impartiality in accordance with its mandate and the applicable legal instruments of the Court. As we do, we hope to count on the full engagement of the relevant national authorities in the Philippines and Venezuela,” the ICC prosecutor explained.
-Complaint filed before ICC by hitman’s lawyer-
The complainant against the Philippine president before the ICC is Atty, Jude Sabio who is lawyering for a self-confessed hired killer based in Davao, Edgar Matobato, who had been presented in September 2016 by Senator Leila de Lima as her star witness on what she said were extrajudicial killings in Davao when President Rodrigo Duterte was still city mayor.
De Lima, was then being criticized by President Duterte for her alleged involvement in the proliferation of drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prisons when she was the still the head of the Department of Justice.
It was on August 25, 2016, that President Duterte revealed a “drug matrix” that he said included De Lima and her former driver-bodyguard, Ronnie Dayan, whom the senator had admitted to be her former lover of several years. Duterte claimed then that De Lima when she was still justice secretary during the term of former President Benigno Aquino III “facilitated everything for money” at the NBP. Congress, on September 20, 2016, started hearings on the NBP illegal drug trade dealings that happened when De Lima was still the justice chief.
It was on September 15, 2016, or five days before the Congress hearing began on the NBP drug dealings,that De Lima presented Matobato as her star witness in the senate probe on alleged extrajudicial killings in Davao on her then committee on justice and human rights, the self-confessed linked President Rodrigo Duterte to the so-called Davao Death Squad.
In the hearings, however, senators pointed out to several inconsistencies in Matobato’s testimony. Senator Richard Gordon even hit De Lima for alleged “material concealment” of information that Matobato had been charged by the National Bureau of Investigation for the 2002 kidnapping with ransom of Pakistani national Sali Makdum.
/ AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE
De Lima was afterwards stripped of her committee chairmanship, and was replaced by Gordon as committee head on justice and human rights. Gordon also chairs the senate blue ribbon committee.
She had been charged for allegedly receiving money from drug dealers inside the country’s prisons, when she was still the Philippine justice secretary from 2010 to 2015.
In February 2017, she was arrested based on these claims and is now facing trial for the various drug-related charges.
She is currently detained inside the Philippine National Police custodial center in Camp CRame, Quezon City where she continues to release statements against Duterte.
Recently, she issued statements supporting the ICC action that was the result of the complaint filed by lawyer Sabio for Davao hitman and her former star witness Matobato.
Another opposition senator, Antonio Trillanes IV — a former Philippine rebel soldier who staged a mutiny in July 2003 to overthrow the then government of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo — also issued statements supporting the ICC complaint.
Trillanes, and another former rebel soldier, now Magdalo Party List representative Gary Alejano, had also filed a supplemental complaint before the ICC to support the self-confessed hired gunman’s complaint in June last year.
President Duterte, on the other hand, issued an invitation for a one-on-one talk with ICC prosecutor Bensouda. He also claimed that the Rome Statute, also referred to as the ICC Statute, is not yet part of Philippine laws, even though the treaty had been signed by the Philippines in 2011. He said the provisions on the treaty, specifically the alleged definition of crimes it covered, have not yet been published in an official gazette as required by law, and could thus not be enforced in the country.
(Eagle News Service)