HRW: ICC prosecutor's request to continue probe into Philippines' drug war 'booster' for accountability

International group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Saturday welcomed the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor's request for a pre-trial chamber to authorize the resumption of the investigation into the war on drugs in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte.

“The ICC prosecutor’s request to resume the investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in the Philippine government’s ‘drug war’ is a booster shot for accountability," HRW senior counsel for the international justice program Maria Elena Vignoli said in a statement.

Vignoli said the Philippine government "has not been serious" in giving justice to drug war victims.

"The government has not been serious about justice for these crimes while the victims’ families grieve without redress and those responsible face no consequences," she said.

In a 53-page resolution, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan on Friday said the Philippine government had not demonstrated that it investigated or was investigating its nationals or others in connection with the series of killings attributed to the anti-drug campaign.

The ICC Office of the Prosecutor in November 2021 temporarily suspended its investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity after the Philippine government requested the ICC to defer to its investigation of its nationals.

The suspension came just two months after the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber 1 granted in September 2021 then-Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's June 14 request to probe crimes "allegedly committed on the territory of the Philippines between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019 in the context of the so-called 'war on drugs' campaign."

“Notably, the Philippine government makes no reference at all to any investigation into crimes committed before July 2016, nor to any investigation into crimes other than murder—and, even then, only murders allegedly carried out in police operations, as opposed to murders allegedly carried out in other relevant circumstances,” Khan said in his request to the chamber.

“The Philippine government does not appear to be investigating whether any of the alleged crimes were committed pursuant to a policy or occurred systemically, or whether any person in the higher echelons of the police or government may be criminally responsible,” he added.

“For these reasons alone, the Court should not defer to the  Philippine government’s investigation,” Khan said.

Khan said information and communications submitted to the prosecution by civil society organizations indicated the need for an ICC investigation.

In October 2021, the Department of Justice published its review of 52 drug war cases that showed that several drug suspects that were killed after allegedly firing first at police officers were negative for gunpowder nitrates.

Then presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the DOJ's release of data on the 52 drug war cases proves that Duterte did not order the killings.

He said the DOJ's move shows that the State is fulfilling its obligation to protect and promote right to life, as well as accord the victims an effective domestic remedy through filing of charges to ensure that those guilty will be prosecuted and punished.

"In 52 cases, there has not been a determination that the President ordered the killing or the President did not do anything to punish those who committed criminal acts," Roque said.

In a letter to Khan dated November 10, 2021, Ambassador Eduardo Malaya requested the deferral of the ICC probe, saying the Philippine government had been looking into the alleged abuses. —KG, GMA News