By Meanne Corvera
Eagle News Service
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and lawyer Jude Sabio welcomed on Thursday news the International Criminal Court would conduct an initial probe into allegations against the drug war.
“This development should jolt (President Rodrigo) Duterte into realizing that he is not above the law,” Trillanes said in a statement.
Trillanes and Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano filed in June a supplemental communication against the chief executive and others before the ICC.
The communication was a supplement to the one filed by Sabio, counsel of alleged hitman Edgar Matobato, on April 24.
According to the senator, the ICC’s move to look into Duterte’s “crimes against humanity” was “the first step for the victims’ families’ quest for justice.”
In a separate statement, Sabio said he was “elated and vindicated.”
“At last, Mr. Duterte and his cohorts will face preliminary examination by the ICC prosecutor as a prelude to formal criminal investigation,” he said.
He expressed hope “a warrant of arrest (would) be issued soon” against the President and “his cohorts.”
“His system of death squad killings since the Davao Death Squad that he continued in the war on drugs will now be investigated by the ICC and justice will be done,” Sabio said.
On Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque revealed the ICC plan to hold the initial probe, based on information provided by the Philippine mission in The Hague, Netherlands, where the court is located.
Roque said Duterte welcomed the news, noting that it was an “opportunity” for him to prove that the accusations against him “do not fall within the ICC’s jurisdiction because of the principle of complimentarity, which means only when domestic courts cannot or will not take cognizance of the cases can it be elevated to the international court.”
He noted that “only crimes which are of the gravest nature, (the) gravest affront against the international community, should be subject to the jurisdiction” of the ICC.
According to Roque, the war on drugs was also a “lawful, legitimate operation.”
“A lawful use of force” against a “threat to national security,” he said, “cannot be characterized as an attack against (the) civilian population because they are civilians.”
