Tag: ICC

Can 3 high-ranking PNP officials get out of ICC ‘suspects’ list?

Published by Ellen on July 27, 2024

What will the Philippine National Police (PNP) do with the three high-ranking officers who were named as suspects in the ongoing probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs?

The three are: Major General Romeo Caramat Jr., former chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and currently the acting area commander of Luzon; retired colonel Edilberto Leonardo, identified in the document as former commissioner of the National Police Commission (the Napolcom’s website still lists him as a commissioner); Brig. Gen. Eleazar Matta, identified by the ICC as former PNP chief intelligence officer (He is currently the director of the PNP-Drug Enforcement Group.).

The three police officers were named, together with Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde, in a four-page confidential document dated July 3, sent through the Philippine Embassy in The Hague and released to the media on July 25 by former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, one of the earliest complainants to the ICC against Duterte’s brutal drug war.

The looming arrest of Duterte and the 2025 elections

Published by Ellen on June 3, 2024

The main character and three of the supporting cast in the ICC trial of Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

The looming issuance of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for former president Rodrigo Duterte and his accomplices in his deadly war on drugs is expected to impact tremendously in the 2025 midterm and the 2028 presidential elections.
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who was the first to bring Duterte’s crimes to the ICC way back in 2017, said the warrants of arrest could be served later this month or early July.

He said, according to his sources privy to the workings of the ICC, the serving of the arrest warrants will be done by batch. The former president will be the first one to be served.

The second batch would most likely include Vice President Sara Duterte and Sens. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go.

The third batch would likely be the police officials who led in the implementation of Duterte’s war on drugs that claimed the lives of some 30,000. (Government figures put those who were killed during police operations at 6,000.)

VP Sara, 2 senators named in ICC probe documents

Published by Ellen on July 23, 2023

Former president Rodrigo Duterte with daughter Vice President Sara and Sen. Bong Go in a 2019 photo when they attended the enthronement of Japanese Emperor Naruhito. Malacañang photo

Aside from former president Rodrigo Duterte, Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio and two incumbent senators were named in documents submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigating the killings related to the drug war during the previous administration and when Duterte was mayor of Davao City, a copy of the documents obtained by VERA Files shows.

The vice president’s name was mentioned as knowing and approving the killings when she was city mayor, a post that her father held for more than 20 years. Sara was mayor from 2010 to 2013, and from 2016 to 2022.

A person knowledgeable of the ICC probe said she could be issued a “summons” by the ICC. If she would not comply with the summons, she would be issued a warrant of arrest.

This is the first time the name of Sara was mentioned in the documents relevant to the ICC investigation.

Marcos’ PH roadshow and the ICC probe

Published by Ellen on February 1, 2023

If you listen closely to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s strident reaction to the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to resume the investigation into the killings related to Duterte’s war on drugs, he didn’t completely rule out allowing the ICC to come into the country.

“Definitely I do not welcome this move of theirs and I will not welcome them in the Philippines unless they make it clear that they will respect us in this regard,” he said in a press conference.

He added: “I will not stand for any of these antics that will question our status as a sovereign country. We will not accept that.”

Trillanes writes to Sabio

Published by Ellen on September 8, 2019

Atty. Jude Sabio files a complaint against Pres. Duterte at the ICC in The Hague.

At the second preliminary investigation last Friday by the Department of Justice of the charge of sedition last Friday by the Department of Justice of the charge of sedition filed by the Philippine National Police against Vice President Leni Robredo and 38 others including former Sen. Antonio Trillanes III, Assistant Solicitor General Angelita Miranda tried to submit additional evidence but was rejected by the panel for the simple reason that when they filed the case in July, the evidence should have been complete.

What Miranda wanted to submit was a news clipping of an opinion piece by lawyer Jude Sabio in the Mindanao Goldstar Daily on Sept. 2, 2019 criticizing Trillanes and a column in the Manila Times by Rigoberto Tiglao about Sabio’s article.

ICC’s Bensouda: ICC probe on PH situation continues

Published by Ellen on March 20, 2019

“My office ‘s independent and impartial preliminary examination into the situation in the Philippines continues.”
That statement by International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda issued Monday should put a stop to the misleading statements of Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo about the ICC process.

Last Monday, Panelo said in his press briefing, “… ICC cannot proceed with any proceeding that it has started specifically because it said that they conducted a preliminary examination and not a preliminary investigation. And under the Rome Statute clearly says that any preliminary investigation or any proceeding relative there to it commenced prior to the withdrawal of state party, can’t continue and will continue. Therefore, if it does continue, it violates its own provision because there has been no preliminary investigation.”

SolGen actions giving ICC reason to exercise jurisdiction on PH EJKs

Published by Ellen on February 28, 2019

A scene after a police operation in one of the depressed areas in Metro Manila. VERA Files photo by Luis Liwanag.

One of the reasons that will make the International Criminal Court decide to exercise jurisdiction over alleged extra-judicial killings committed under the Duterte administration is when they see that the government is “unable or unwilling” to prosecute the crimes. It is called the principle of complementarity.

The communications filed at the ICC against Duterte and police officials alleged to be responsible for the over 5,000 killed during anti-drug operations is in the Examination stage. In her annual report last December, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office has received a total of 52 communications related to extrajudicial killings in the Philippines since she started the preliminary examination on Feb. 8, 2018.

She said her office will “ continue to engage with a variety of reliable sources and relevant stakeholders on all matters relevant to the preliminary examination of the situation in the Philippines.”

‘Pres’ Sara 2022 is Duterte’s insurance from ICC arrest when he is no longer president

Published by Ellen on February 23, 2019

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte accompanied her father, Pres. Duterte, to the BoaO Forum in Hainan, China on April 201, 2018. Malacañang photo by Simeon Celi.

Early last week, fellow Malaya columnist JB Baylon posted this shout out in his Facebook wall:

After DU30, Sarah
Accept it.
Sorry na lang for those who sucked up hoping for an endorsement.
She’s the “term extension”

Last week also, as Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio went around campaigning for her 13-member Hugpong ng Pagbabago senatorial slate, there had been a lot of comments about her being a strong contender for the 2022 presidential election.

US Congress finds ‘unacceptable’ human rights developments in PH

Published by Ellen on February 14, 2019

US Pres. Donald Trump and Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte meet in Manila during the 2017 Asean Summit. Malacañang file photo.

Next month, March 17, the withdrawal of the Philippines from the Rome Statute, the founding treaty for the International Criminal Court, will take effect- one year after the Duterte government deposited its official notification with the United Nations Secretary-General in New York.

The ICC, in its statement, said last year that while they regret the Philippine government’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute, “A withdrawal has no impact on on-going proceedings or any matter which was already under consideration by the Court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective; nor on the status of any judge already serving at the Court.”

At least three separate communications have been filed with the ICC accusing President Duterte and officials of his government of committing crimes against humanity citing extra judicial killings in the war against drugs as well as killings by the so-called Davao Death Squad when Duterte was Davao City mayor.

Those who filed the cases against Duterte in the ICC that include Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Repair Alejano, lawyer Jude Sabio and relatives of the victims of the drug war, hope that the case will move up to the investigation stage before March 17. Right now, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is in the preliminary examination stage, monitoring developments in the country.

Speaking of reports, the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act (ARIA) that U.S. President Donald Trump signed last Dec. 31 contained several observations damning to the Philippines in the area of human rights.

Families of drug war victims bring plea for justice at the ICC

Published by Ellen on August 30, 2018

Irma J. Locasia, mother of Salvador J. Locasia, Jr. killed in a police operation on August 31, 2016;
Dennise B. David, father of John Jezreel T. David killed in a police operation on January 20, 2017; Maria C. B. Lozano, sister of Crisanto and Juan Carlos B. Lozano both killed in a police operation on May 12, 2017; Mariel F. Sabangan, sister of Bernabe F. Sabangan killed alongside Arnold S. Vitales in a police operation on May 15, 2017; Normita B. Lopez, mother of Djastin B. Lopez killed in a police operation on May, 18, 2017; Purisima B. Dacumos, wife of Danilo G. Dacumos killed in a police operation on August 3, 2017.

Last Tuesday, as the Supreme Court started hearing oral arguments on the legality of the withdrawal by the Duterte government from the International Criminal Court, the names mentioned in the first paragraph, held a press conference announcing their decision to go to the ICC in The Hague because they do not expect to get justice for their kin killed in Duterte’s bloody and indiscriminating war against drugs.