Last week, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Appeals Chamber based in the Hague, Netherlands voted 3-2 rejecting the appeal of the Philippine government to stop its investigation into the murderous and bloody anti-illegal drug campaign during the Duterte administration despite the country’s withdrawal of membership from the court. The Philippine government then asserted its sovereignty as the main reason. The illegal drug campaign of Duterte was called “Oplan Tokhang” which resulted in the killing of not less than 6,000 individuals either engaged or suspected of engaging in the illegal drug trade. The number of deaths would include several collateral damages and those that are victims of abuses of the Philippine National Police (PNP) under the leadership of Oplan Tokhang’s principal initiator, then PNP Chief and now Senator Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa.
Today, several PNP officers and personnel are facing criminal charges from the victims and slain family members of those suspected of involvement in the illegal drug trade while illegal drug trade continues to be the number one problem of the country.
With the decision of ICC, the supporters of Duterte and De la Rosa are rabidly criticizing the international body for its supposed intrusion into the affairs of the country, again. While the matter of invoking sovereignty is valid, committing murder and genocide and hiding under the cloak of sovereignty is not. To think that in the height of its campaign, only those who belong to the lower economic class or the poor suspected drug peddlers were nabbed and murdered and those who have the money and power have remained free until now.
It is interesting to note that the country has sought the United Nation’s help in its struggle against China at the disputed South China sea and has declared an international court’s action to investigate the crimes committed against its people as intrusion against its sovereignty. It’s, however, a cold water under the bridge today. The international tribunal has commenced its investigation and it is now a matter of time as to when it will render its judgment. On a personal note, it’s not really about seeing Duterte and De la Rosa getting arrested and facing prosecution. It is about establishing a precedent that we cannot be careless in implementing the law and disregard the process of law, justice and order in resolving crimes and social problems. Illegal drug is sinister and so is murder. It is about ensuring that what happened a few years back will never happen again.
In the meantime, we can only imagine how Duterte and de la Rosa are feeling right now. While the former president has done a lot of good things in disturbing the system during his administration, it’s not an excuse to order the massive killings of suspected illegal drug peddlers and get out of it free. As for de la Rosa, he can sleep soundly meantime as the current administration is an ally. Certainly though, they simply cannot get out of the country and stay just anywhere especially where ICC exercises clout and jurisdiction. At the very least, the act of ICC only shows that murder is murder and you just can’t simply get out of it.
