Volume III, Number 22. 30 November 2021.
Sensing the inevitable, President Rodrigo Duterte and his accomplices are suing for time. His stooge in The Hague sent a letter to the International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan on 10 November requesting that the ICC suspend its investigations and proceedings relating to the “alleged crimes against humanity committed throughout the Philippines between 1 July 2016 and 16 March 2019… as well as in the Davao area between 1 November 2011 and 30 June 2016.”
Propagandists of the Manila government lost no time in drumbeating the suspension of the ICC investigations. The suspension, they say, means the ICC recognizes the Manila government’s commitment to solve the thousands of murders perpetrated under Duterte’s ‘war against drugs’ and ‘war against communism’. Alas, on the contrary, Duterte just managed to shoot himself in the foot.
In his 18 November response, ICC Prosecutor Khan said the deferral does not have a general effect on the prosecution’s investigations. The deferment will only cover cases which Manila is claiming to be investigating. He stressed that analysis of information they already have and any new information it may still receive from third parties will continue.
Taking note of the inflated claim that Manila is already investigating 52 cases, Mr. Khan demanded that he be provided proof if indeed “concrete and progressive steps are being undertaken to ascertain the responsibility of persons” in the cases under ICC investigation. In fact, only 36 of these 52 cases occurred within the 2016 – 2019 period being investigated by the ICC.
In requesting for the deferral, the Manila government has de facto recognized ICC jurisdiction over the alleged crimes against humanity committed by Duterte and his security officials. Further, in citing 52 cases, the Manila government is now obliged to provide additional information about these to the ICC. In the meantime, investigation of the cases submitted to the ICC by victims’ families and human rights organizations will continue.
However, expect Duterte and his accomplices to continue throwing wrenches in the work of the ICC. They will employ public funds, resources and personnel to escape culpability. They will ensure that the looming dictators’ dynasty of Marcos-Duterte will snatch the 2022 presidential elections. They will malign, harass, threaten, detain, torture and murder those who oppose and stand against them. They will make it plain, however, that the Filipino people have no recourse but to dismantle the larcenous, treasonous and murderous Duterte dynastic regime.