FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte and his minions have all the reasons to be sleepless and anxious as the “day of reckoning” nears for the perpetrators of the previous administration’s bloody war against drugs, says retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio.
In an interview with political analyst Richard Heyderian, Carpio particularly hinted at the International Criminal Court’s issuance of arrest warrants by next month even as he claimed that the supposed investigation on Duterte’s drug war is already in its final stages.
“I think the day of reckoning is coming closer, because what I’m hearing is that a warrant of arrest will be issued by the ICC sometime in September,” said Carpio without naming sources from where he got the information.
Heydarian, who recently paid a visit in The Hague in the Netherlands, then claimed to have received similar information about the timeline.
Among those whose names are expected to be included in the first batch of warrants include Duterte, and his former national police chief now Senator Ronald Dela Rosa.
The most recent addition to the list of ICC suspects are former PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde, former chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Major Gen. Romeo Caramat, former National Police Commission (Napolcom) chief retired Col. Edilberto Leonardo, and former PNP chief for Intelligence Brig. Gen. Eleazar Matta
However, the former President maintained his position – that he does not recognize the ICC and that it has no jurisdiction in the Philippines.
“P***** i**** ICC na yan. I do not recognize that… Ano yang ICC na yan? Are we or are we not? Yun ang tanong ko muna: Is jurisdiction, abogado ako eh, fiscal ako. Whenever I face a case dito sa korte every day, magtanong ako diyan: Do I have the power? May jurisdiction ba ako dito sa kaso na pino-prosecute niyo? Huwag tayong magdaldal, let’s go legal,” an obviously pissed off Duterte said.
The Office of the Solicitor General headed by no less than Duterte’s appointee, earlier said that the Philippine government will not block the ICC prosecutor from conducting interviews with “suspects” accused of crimes against humanity in Duterte’s drug war.
The Philippine government “has no legal duty to lend any assistance to the ICC prosecutor in conducting his investigation but [it] cannot stop him from proceeding any way he wants,” Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said.
The ICC prosecutor is investigating Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign for what the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber said in 2021 appeared to be “a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy.”
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded Duterte, has refused to cooperate in the ICC probe and taken no steps to restore membership, saying the Philippines has a functioning judicial system. (ANGEL F. JOSE)
