Duterte on Alejano’s ICC threat: It’s a democracy

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – “What else do they want?”

President Duterte asked this yesterday of his detractors following the dismissal of the impeachment complaint against him in the House of Representatives.

“I was investigated by the (Commission on) Human Rights when Delaila (detained Sen. Leila de Lima) was still the chairman. I was investigated again when she was the justice secretary. Then I was investigated again by the Senate and I was investigated again by the House,” Duterte said upon his arrival at the Davao International Airport from his trips to Cambodia, Hong Kong and China. 

The President also shrugged off the plan of Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano to file a complaint of human rights abuses before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Alejano initiated the impeachment complaint against Duterte, but the House justice committee on Monday dismissed the complaint for insufficiency of substance as required under the Constitution.

Alejano had accused Duterte of human rights abuses following reports of extrajudicial killings allegedly upon orders of the President when he was still mayor of Davao City.

Alejano told a news conference that he had no regrets filing the first impeachment complaint against Duterte “even if I was not given the opportunity to explain.”

He said the decision of the committee on justice to dismiss the case “was based not on principle but on political convenience.”

Alejano said he would elevate his case against Duterte before the ICC.

“Yeah, he can go ahead. He is free to do it. This is a democracy,” Duterte said.

The President lamented how some people were convinced about the alleged human rights abuse he reportedly committed.

“Some guys are being taken for a ride a thousand times over. The truth is many people were killed. That’s why we call it war against drugs. But this is not in the character and kind that was dished out – that I ordered the killing of innocents, including children,” he added.

Duterte said the charges are all nonsense. “It is not my character, you know me,” he said.

An official of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said many countries are supporting Duterte’s drug war.

“In fact, many countries have supported our anti-illegal drug campaign. In fact, ASEAN and also other countries outside ASEAN have manifested that they support us. Japan particularly stated they will continue to give assistance,” said Chief Supt. Dennis Siervo, director of the PNP’s Human Rights Affairs Office.

Siervo was part of the Philippine delegation during the dialogue under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on May 8.?He said the Philippine delegation led by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano informed UN officials of the real situation in the drug war. He added the UN officials had admitted they were only getting  information from the media.??

‘Cremate it’

Lawmakers, for their part, are not likely to revive the impeachment complaint against Duterte.

“We will not do that. In fact, we will cremate it,” Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said.

He said the House would sustain the decision of its justice committee when it submits its report.

Alvarez said the charges that Duterte is pursuing a state policy of killings in his anti-drug war and that he has amassed illegal wealth worth P2.2 billion “are baseless.”

As for the plan of impeachment complainant Alejano to elevate his case to the ICC, Alvarez said, “This is an internal matter, over which the ICC has no jurisdiction. The ICC should not meddle with us.”

“In fact, the information earlier filed with the ICC should have been filed with the National Mental Hospital,” he added.

The complainant in the ICC case is Jude Sabio, lawyer of self-confessed Davao death squad leader Arthur Lascañas.

Alvarez also said even if another impeachment proceeding is initiated, it could only take place after the second regular session of Congress opens in July.

He said he is still studying the impeachment petitions submitted to his office by critics of Vice President Leni Robredo and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.

As for De Lima, the detained senator described the dismissal of the impeachment complaint as an exercise in futility.

De Lima questioned the grounds used by the House committee on justice in dismissing the complaint. She said the required personal knowledge of the complainant in the allegations of crimes is not found in the rules.

“The initiation of an impeachment complaint against the President is governed by Article 11, Section 3(2) of the 1987 Constitution. Nowhere, but nowhere, in this constitutional provision or the Rules of the House of Representatives is it required that the member of Congress who files the impeachment complaint must have personal knowledge of the articles of impeachment,” De Lima said.

She noted no such ground or requirement existed in the impeachment of former president Joseph Estrada and the late former chief justice Renato Corona.

If the same requirement was imposed in the impeachment of Estrada and Corona, then they would have similarly failed because no member of the House who filed or endorsed those complaints had any personal knowledge of the grounds contained in those complaints, she said.

At that stage of the process, De Lima said the members of the committee were only required to determine the sufficiency in form and substance of the complaint, not the weight and sufficiency of evidence.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the justice committee erred in throwing out the complaint.

He said the petition satisfied the requirements of form and substance and should have been given due course.

Lagman likened its filing to the filing of criminal information in the prosecutor’s office.

“When you file a case with the prosecutor’s office, you are not at once required to present your evidence and witnesses. That will come later. There is a stage for that,” he said.

Lagman said he believes the justice committee violated the constitutional requirements on due process by dismissing the Alejano complaint outright.

Despite this, Lagman said their group of opposition congressmen, including Alejano, has no plan to elevate the issue to the Supreme Court “because justices will just dismiss it as a political question.” 

“The remedy is with the people. They should voice out their sentiments on the dismissal of the complaint,” he said.

Alejano refused to say if he would be filing a second petition in May next year when the one-year ban on further impeachment proceedings against Duterte expires.

The justice committee is expected to submit its report to the House next week.

The chamber will most likely send the case to the graveyard before Congress adjourns its first regular session on June 3.

Lagman’s colleague in the group, Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin, said they expected the dismissal of the impeachment complaint.

“Just as we have feared, the complaint was dismissed swiftly and methodically. The mood of the House leadership is to make the complaint moot by sheer numbers and not merits,” Villarin said.

“It would be oppressive for the House even to mull the filing of a perjury and ethics case against Alejano, who only wanted to be given his day in a proper impeachment proceeding,” he said.

Villarin said the unanimous vote by 42 members of the justice committee showed their muscle.

“But going beyond that is tantamount to bullying a decent member of the House. If Alejano goes to the ICC as a court of last resort against the President, then let him be,” he said.  

Administration lawmaker Salvador Leachon of Oriental Mindoro advised Lagman’s group of seven congressmen that they should accept the fact that democracy worked in last Monday’s deliberations in the justice committee.

“You must accept the reality that, well, it’s political. Congressmen are also human beings. They have the conscience, they have the heart,” Leachon said.

Resolve our problems

Vice President Leni Robredo said she is against the filing of a case against Duterte before the ICC.

“I think we could not stop whoever wants to avail of the process available. But of course, as a country, we like to resolve our problems on our own,” Robredo said.

She said the Philippines must show that its institutions can solve local issues. 

“It is important that government institutions are not setting aside the complaints of the people so they would not look for other recourse,” she said.

She said she was uncertain whether Alejano’s plans to raise the issue to the ICC would prosper. 

Robredo, meanwhile, refused to comment when asked if she thinks the impeachment complaint to be filed against her would also be dismissed by the House.

“In our case, we’re not yet given the chance to hear if the complaint has basis,” she said in Filipino.

“For me, any complaints that will be brought before the DOJ (Department of Justice) fiscal must be resolved properly so we don’t need to ask for the help of others,” Robredo said. 

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday agreed that efforts to impeach the two highest officials of the land would not do the country any good. 

“Impeachment, whether of the President or Vice President, will never be productive for us Filipinos. It divides us and impedes the lawmakers from what they must do for our country,” CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People chairman Bataan Bishop Ruperto Santos said. – With Jess Diaz, Marvin Sy, Helen Flores, Delon Porcalla, Cecille Suerte Felipe