MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman’s indictment of a Manila police officer in an alleged “Tokhang” case only strengthens the arguments against President Rodrigo Duterte in the International Criminal Court and the chief executive remains scot-free, said a group of lawyers.
Lawyer Kristina Conti, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers-National Capital Region, said in a statement that the filing of murder charges against Police Staff Sgt. Gerry Geñalope over the killing of 23-year-old Djastin Lopez “will strengthen our argument that the Philippine courts are unwilling and unable to prosecute the horrible mass murders.”
“Only low-ranking policemen—three in Kian [delos Santos’] case and now one in [Djastin’s]—are being held liable for the killings that run into the thousands,” Conti added in a statement.
The government has repeatedly said that it observes the rule of law in anti-drug operations and that it does not condone extrajudicial killings, which it has stressed is not a state policy. It has also stressed that the country's justice system is working, so there is no need for the ICC to get involved.
NUPL and Rise Up for Life and for Rights helped families of victims of extrajudicial killings bring their cases to the international tribunal on August 2018.
The ICC informed the lawyers’ group on April 4 that it is looking into their communication as it “relates to a situation already under preliminary examination by the Office of the Prosecutor.”
One of the cases cited in their 50-page communication is Djastin’s case, which happened during a May 2017 operation of the Manila police.
READ: EJK victims’ kin sue Duterte before ICC
The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal of, and filing of murder charge against, Geñalope, which it noted in the resolution, shot Djastin five times while the victim was defenseless in a supine position.
The office did not find sufficient evidence to indict Police Captain Jojo Salanguit who supposedly led the operation. It however ordered its Field Investigation Bureau to conduct a fact-finding investigation to determine the legitimacy of the May 18, 2018 operation.
NUPL-NCR head Conti pointed out they “have narrowed down the perpetrator to the one ‘most responsible’ of this crime against humanity of murder and persecution—Rodrigo Duterte.”
“The fact that he is not, and never will be, on trial in domestic cases/court means that we will not be able to prevent or secure justice for these wholesale crimes in the Philippines,” she added.
Immunity from suit is a doctrine accorded to a sitting president to ensure that he or she can exercise his duties and functions of running the country’s affairs free from any hindrance or distraction.
“The ICC must consider it within the urgent interests of justice to open their country investigation and trial soonest possible,” Conti also said. — Kristine Joy Patag