No better time to work with ICC

With several individuals—from former government officials to police officers and drug personalities—coming out of the woodwork to express willingness to testify against former President Rodrigo Duterte on the atrocities committed during his term, the time seems ripe to give the International Criminal Court (ICC) its due.

The international court is pushing an investigation into Duterte and his cohorts for the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of thousands of drug suspects in his brutal drug war. While initially hostile to the idea, claiming the ICC’s lack of jurisdiction because of the country’s 2018 withdrawal from its Rome Statute, the Marcos administration has since softened its stance.

In August, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the country would not block any arrest warrants that the Interpol may issue concerning the ICC’s “drug war” case. “We no longer have a commitment with the ICC, but we have with the Interpol,” he said.

While the turnabout may be partly due to the political war of attrition between the Marcoses and the Dutertes, there’s no denying that both the Senate and quad committee hearings at the House of Representatives have unearthed enough leads to pin down the former president on the ICC’s charge of crimes against humanity.

Duterte’s narcolist

The latest would-be witness to surface was Kerwin Espinosa who alleged being threatened by Duterte police chief and now Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to admit before the Senate that he was a drug lord. Dela Rosa has denied this.

Espinosa on Saturday said he was “1,000 percent” willing to testify before the ICC “to get justice” for his father, former Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., who died in an alleged shootout inside a provincial jail in November 2016.

In September, former Iloilo Mayor Jed Mabilog said that he was included in Duterte’s narcolist and repeatedly threatened, forcing him and his family into exile in the United States for the next seven years. Mabilog said his insider friends had warned him against meeting with some of Duterte’s representatives as he would be forced to link the drug trade to opposition leaders former Senate President Franklin Drilon and former presidential aspirant Mar Roxas.

Also in September, Bureau of Corrections Senior Supt. Gerardo Padilla recalled Duterte’s call congratulating him over the August 2016 killing of three alleged Chinese drug lords in the Davao Prison and Penal Farm. Before the killing, he said he had received a call from then Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Officer Royina Garma ordering him not to interfere in the “operation.” Garma has denied Padilla’s claims, but she has since been implicated in illegal jueteng operations as its alleged protector and in the killing of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office board secretary Wesley Barayuga, when she was PCSO manager.

Window of opportunity

Though the former president has yet to appear before the quad comm hearings despite its open invitation to him, his recent words seem to support the given testimonies: “What do they want to know? Extrajudicial killings? They’re true. Illegal drugs. That’s why people died,” he said on Saturday.

With the witnesses’ bold testimonies occasioned by Duterte being no longer in a position of power to influence the courts or threaten, neutralize, or wreak political vendetta against his detractors, the prospect seems promising to finally get justice for the families of EJK victims.

But this window of opportunity could close prematurely, with the looming elections reversing political fortunes overnight. Admittedly, the Dutertes are not a spent force and still command a loyal following in some quarters. With an overflowing campaign chest, the former president’s family seems confident enough to run for re-election, while his allies are circling the wagons, knowing that restoring their patron to power could bring back their glory days as well.

Global reputation

It is thus imperative for the government to act quickly and decisively to pursue and prosecute those involved in the interlocking ills of drug-related killings, illegal Pogos, and criminality. The testimony of witnesses credible for their firsthand accounts and involvement in the drug war is material to this resolve.

For a start, the government can explore the possibility of turning the more credible and least guilty parties into state witnesses, thus affording them state protection. Rethinking our official stance on the ICC can further embolden other potential witnesses to come out, while cooperating fully with this body will boost our global reputation as a nation of laws, which aligns with President Marcos’ repeated declaration of the need “to establish a rules-based order.”

Ultimately, determined efforts to ferret the truth and hold to account those behind the drug killings should serve as a strong deterrent against future regimes that would put the law in their hands. But we have to seize the moment—a more conducive atmosphere to the ICC probe might not come again.