ICHRP calls for
continued ICC investigation of Duterte’s crimes against humanity in
the wake of Marcos government’s attempts to shield perpetrators by
refusing to rejoin
Press Release
August 3, 2022
MANILA – Refusal of
the Marcos Administration to rejoin the ICC shields Duterte and his
policies of impunity and state terror, further victimizing the
30,000 that were summarily executed in the Duterte Regimes wars on
drugs; on dissent; and on the Moro people.
“The International
Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines [ICHRP] is extremely
disappointed but not surprised by the new Marcos administration’s
decision to keep the Philippines outside the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Court [ICC],” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter
Murphy today. “This is part of the continued and ongoing state
cover-up of crimes against humanity.”
ICHRP believes the
confirmation that the Philippines is out of the ICC is an ominous
sign for human rights as the only rationale for not being under its
jurisdiction is to shelter perpetrators from prosecution and the
intention to continue committing such crimes.
Despite this deplorable
decision by the Marcos government, there remain grounds for the
continued investigation of Duterte presidency’s alleged crimes
against humanity.
In June 2021, ICC
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda reported that there were sufficient
grounds for a full investigation into the crime against humanity of
murder committed in connection with the country’s ‘war on drugs’
between 1 July 2016 and 16 March 2019. ICHRP urges that this full
investigation be vigorously pursued and not be stalled by continued
false claims that the Philippine judicial system is functioning and
can address any concerns about these alleged gross violations of
human rights.
“The findings of the First
and Second Reports of the Independent International Commission of
Investigation into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines
(Investigate PH) clearly showed the flaws and failure of the
domestic remedies,” said Murphy.
The Philippine courts had
managed to convict only two police officers for the 2017 murder of
17 year-old Kian Delos Santos. This was one case of the 6,011
officially recorded up to the end of 2020. This case only succeeded
because the Barangay Captain had failed to switch off the CCTV which
recorded the police abduction of Kian.
Investigate PH also
dispelled the Philippine government claims that the thousands of
victims of the ‘war on drugs’ were killed by police in self-defence.
It presented forensic evidence to the ICC of victims with defensive
wounds, of victims who had been bound before being killed. But there
are probably over 30,000 cases of these police killings in anti-drug
operations, based on statistics of “Deaths Under Investigation”. And
now the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency no longer reports deaths
in anti-drug operations, on their Real Numbers PH webpage.
“A review – of 5,655 cases
– was first promised by Justice Secretary Guevarra to the UN Human
Rights Council in June 2020,” said Murphy. In February 2021
Secretary Guevarra reported that just 328 cases had been reviewed,
revealing no proper crime scene investigation in more than half the
cases.
“ICHRP has full confidence
in the impartiality of the ICC. We reiterate that the ICC should
vigorously pursue the full investigation of the previous Duterte
administration for these alleged crimes against humanity so that,
finally, justice may be served and impunity ended,” Murphy said.
ICHRP initiated the
Investigate PH project, under which an independent international
commission conducted its three-part investigation on the
extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, abductions and
disappearances, and breaches of collective human rights in the
Philippines since 2016 when President Duterte came into power.