MANILA, Philippines — A potential International Criminal Court investigation into extrajudicial killings in the "war on drugs" should spur the government to work harder to probe into alleged abuses in the campaign and hold those responsible to account, the Commission on Human Rights said.
Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit also urged the Duterte administration to cooperate with the ICC, a move that the Palace has ruled out.
Related Stories
"It remains to be a critical time for the government to be able to cooperate in this particular mechanism… We advise this is still an opportunity to demonstrate accountability mechanisms are working on the ground but we do have to have results," Gomez-Dumpit said in a forum Thursday.
She said ICC chief prosecutor Fatous Bensouda's request while still in office to open a full investigation into drug killings between 2016 and 2019 "does not cancel out the domestic mechanisms."
"It has become impetus for us to do better on the ground and ensure investigations are carried out, ensure there will be prosecutions. We must monitor the court proceedings for cases," Gomez-Dumpit said.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, once considered a human rights lawyer, reiterated a previous assertion that The Hague-based court has no jurisdiction in the Philippines after the country officially left ICC in 2019.
But Bensouda said the tribunal could still investigate crimes allegedly committed while Manila was a member.
Justice at domestic level
Lawyer Rey Paolo Santiago, co-chairperson of the Philippine Coalition for the ICC, also urged authorities to make justice work at the domestic level.
"It takes two to tango. Civil society has to do its part if it wants to ensure accountability in addressing impunity. The government has to make the justice work if it doesn’t want an ICC process really to proceed full steam ahead," said Santiago, who is also the executive director of the Ateneo Human Rights Center.
"If we are able to fix our justice system, I would say the ICC worked because the victory of the ICC is not just conviction in ICC, but making justice work at the domestic level," he added.
Last year, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said there has been "near impunity" for drug war killings with only one conviction—for the murder of 17-year-old school boy Kian delos Santos in 2017.
The Department of Justice is conducting a review of the deadly “drug war” police operations, which families of drug war victims believe is neither comprehensive nor transparent.
Rights groups welcomed the development, with Amnesty International calling it a “landmark step.” But New York-based Human Rights Watch said the ICC probe, if it pushes through, will be a “painstaking” process.
Official police figures acknowledge at least 6,000 deaths in anti-drug operations since July 2016. But human rights organizations estimate the number of people killed could be several times higher.