Former Bayan Muna Congressman Neri Colmenares today claimed that Duterte’s admissions practically ties up the case against him in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and could lead to the prosecution of many of his police subordinates as he practically admitted that no self-defense happened.
“Pres. Rodrigo Duterte tried to make the Senate hearing a forum to absolve himself and cleanse his image but he was forced to essentially admit that he ordered his death squads to kill and that there was no self-defense as he ordered the police to provoke and encourage the victim to fight back,” said Colmenares
“Under Philippine laws, the two crucial elements of self-defense are unlawful aggression from the victim, and there was lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the police. If the police encouraged or provoked the victim, the police can no longer claim self-defense. With the reward system in place, there were many instances when the police killed the victim just to get the reward money even if the victim did not fight back. Parang si Pres. Duterte pa ang nagkanulo sa mga police nya,” said former Bayan Muna Congressman Colmenares.
“His declaration that he claims full responsibility for the drug deaths is just drama and empty rhetoric aimed to sway the police to his side at pampapogi lang sa kanya. Philippine laws state that implementing an illegal order does not absolve the perpetrator of the crime. It only means that the one who ordered and the one who implemented the illegal order can be charged with and convicted of the crime. It is now possible that the ICC will expand the number of the accused with this admission by Pres. Duterte,” he added
Colmenares, who is also co-counsel of some of the families of the drug war EJK victims in the ICC, further said that the burden of filing the cases should not be placed on the families of the victims. “The families of the victims were not given the documents necessary to file a case as the police refused to give them the police reports, SOCO reports, blotters and other documents. There were even cases when the death certificate indicated the cause of death as bronco-pneumonia instead of gunshot wounds, practically pre-empting any criminal case for the killing,”
“Even the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is complaining that they were not given copies of the reports as the police use Duterte’s Freedom of Information executive order to avoid cooperation” added Colmenares.
“The ICC case has long started, and it is about to end with a warrant of arrest issued against Duterte and his subordinates rather than another criminal case that will take years and could even end up acquitting many of the accused as what happened in many pork barrel cases,” he said
“One cannot blame the families for pinning their hopes in the ICC rather than our un-cooperative justice system. At least doon, walang palakasan. As one mother of a victim stated when asked why she did not file a case in the Philippines: “Mahirap lang kami. At pangalawa, hind sa amin ang batas. We are very hopeful that a warrant will be issued and Duterte will be the first Asian to be tried in the ICC,” ended Colmenares.#
