"x x x.
ICC is last resort for drug war, DDS victims amid CHR’s P1,000 budget —lawyer
Published September 13, 2017 1:28pm
By JOSEPH TRISTAN ROXAS, GMA News
The lawyer of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato on Wednesday said the P1,000 budget of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in 2018 shows that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the "last resort" to give justice to the victims of the war on drugs and the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS).
In a text message to GMA News Online, Attorney Jude Sabio said the country cannot expect a full-blown investigation into the war on drugs and the DDS since the primary person involved in these cases is President Rodrigo Duterte.
"This development proves that this death squad regime will never ever conduct a national criminal investigation into the death squad killings. How can this regime conduct such investigation into the potential liability of Duterte himself when it is precisely abolishing the CHR?" Sabio said.
"Based on the principle of complementarity, when there can and never will be such national criminal investigation, the ICC can come in as a court of last resort to attain international criminal justice," he added.
Sabio lodged a complaint against Duterte and several other members of his administration at the ICC in April where he accused them of crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile, Sabio scored the congressmen who voted in favor of the CHR's 2018 budget, calling it the "utter contempt" of the administration to curb human rights and a "congressional blackmail to force CHR to toe the line."
"It is meant to silence human rights defenders. It shows that this murderous regime will not and never give a damn about and will just continue the death squad killings," he said.
Sabio also called on human rights defenders and the international community to condemn and denounce the "unprecedented act of barbarity of [House Speaker Pantaleon] Alvarez and his minions."
‘Lack of concern for human rights’
CHR chairman Chito Gascon said he hopes the ICC will look into the facts of the country's human rights situation, noting that the CHR is unfamiliar with the complaint filed by Sabio.
"I should think that the ICC prosecutor would look for facts on the ground that indicate violations actionable under the Rome Statute," Gascon told GMA News Online.
"If at all, defunding CHR may be construed as a mere indicator of lack of concern for [human rights]," he added.
The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the ICC which allows the court to investigate crimes involving genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression allegedly committed by a state party, in this case the Philippines.
The treaty also states that the ICC can only investigate crimes where states are "unable" or "unwilling" to do so. —KG, GMA News
x x x."
