‘Constructive notice’

Typical of his style of leadership President Rodrigo Duterte stirred public debates here and abroad when he announced his decision to withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statute Treaty. The Philippine government’s withdrawal will effectively sever its official commitments from this treaty and out of the clutches of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its jurisdiction in particular over the person of President Duterte.

The Philippines signed the Rome Statute on Dec. 28, 2000 during the term of former president Joseph Estrada whose office was cut short in January 2001. But former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo withdrew the Philippine accession to the Treaty, on the ground among other reasons that super power countries like the United States, Russia and China have not even acceded to it. It was during the term of President Benigno Aquino III that the Philippine accession to the Treaty was revived and its ratification endorsed to the Senate in August 2011.

But it is the incumbent Philippine President who is now facing charges of alleged “crimes against humanity” before the ICC.

Thus, the masterstroke of President Duterte to quit the ICC came as no surprise to many of his critics and human rights groups now all crowing at his latest stunt as a sign of guilt, if not cowardice of the tough-talking ex-Davao City Mayor.

The formal complaint against President Duterte was initiated by opposition leader Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and lawyer Jude Sabio. Sabio filed before the ICC in April 2017 a formal complaint accusing President Duterte and several other Philippine government officials of committing “crimes against humanity” due to the “Oplan Tokhang,” the war on drugs and other extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in Davao City during his watch as its mayor.

In June 2017, Trillanes flew all the way to The Hague-based ICC to file a supplemental complaint against President Duterte on the latter’s alleged State-sanctioned EJKs of thousands of Filipinos in police operations against illegal drugs trafficking in the Philippines.

The last straw, so to speak, that drove the present Philippine leader to take the exit out of the ICC came a week after no less than the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR) Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein virtually entered judgment on his character as a ruthless human rights violator. Al-Hussein, who is a prince of Jordan, ridiculed President Duterte as someone needing psychiatric examination.

The UNCHR chief’s nasty comment on President Duterte came after the Philippine government’s filing of a petition asking a regional trial court in Manila to declare and include some 600 communist-leaning Filipinos as members of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO). It included Victoria Tauli-Corpuz who once worked as UN Human Rights rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.

If it is any comfort for President Duterte, Al-Hussein announced he won’t seek re-election but is stepping down as UNCHR this August when his four-year term ends. The UNCHR chief earlier has a running feud with US President Donald Trump whom he first publicly criticized as “grossly irresponsible” during the US presidential campaign when the latter promised to ban Muslims from visiting or migrating to the US.

Despite Al-Hussein’s bowing out as UNCHR, his tirades against President Duterte became the latest signs of “conspiracy” by anti-administration groups to shame the Philippine leader before the international community, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said yesterday. Roque denounced the ICC prosecutor in particular for not dismissing outright what he described as “politicized” complaint of Trillanes and Sabio.

An international law expert himself, Roque who once hailed the Philippine accession to the Rome Statute Treaty, believes it was the right move on the part of President Duterte to break off our ties with the ICC. 

Last Tuesday, or a day before the Philippine breakaway from the ICC was announced, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar sent us a very early morning text message with an invite “to have coffee” with President Duterte at 8 p.m. later that night at Malacañang. A group of a dozen mainstream media columnists, including yours truly, were invited to this obviously hastily organized “meet the press” with the President. As it turned out, aside from “coffee” we were also served a spartan dinner fare of soup, two pieces each of honey-cured chicken parts and asparagus, with half cup of rice and two small cuts of tarts.

We were ushered in to the Palace Study Room to wait for the Commander-in-chief who was still presiding a command conference with the top military and police officials. While waiting for the Chief Executive, Roque presented and explained to us how the ICC is supposed to observe its own legal procedures and the processes that any case filed before it must go through.

It was already past 9 p.m. when President Duterte got to conduct his “meet the press” with us along with Roque and Andanar. After the usual niceties, President Duterte immediately told us he has decided to explain why he kept saying in his speeches the past two weeks the ICC will “never, never, never” have jurisdiction over him. “Not in a million years,” he added.

The President revealed for the first time he knew long before his worst enemies would resort to the ICC since he was first investigated and later exonerated by then UN rapporteur Philip Alston while he was still Mayor. He counted as many as four times of investigations subsequently on the same alleged human rights violations.

Waving to us a prepared statement, the President said: “I just hid it. I have evidence. I kept it because I know my defense. I may be wrong. If there is a flaw in my reasoning…but I am ready.”

A long-time prosecutor before he entered politics, the President cited his evidence is the Treaty itself, the instruments of which – though ratified – were merely turned over to the UN Protocols in New York but never got published at the Official Gazette or any newspapers in the Philippines.

Basic due process, he pointed out, requires “constructive notice” to the accused – in this case President Duterte.