by Filane Mikee Cervantes/PNA
Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday said the Philippines’ withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) will not have a negative effect on the country.
In an interview after the groundbreaking ceremony of the new Senate building in Taguig City, Sotto said the country’s membership in the Rome Statute, the international treaty that created the ICC, did not result in any significant gains.
“Meron na bang pangyayari na nakinabang ang Pilipinas? Wala. As a matter of fact, ngayon parang pineperwisyo pa tayo as far as the media is concerned (Was there any instance that the Philippines benefited from [its membership in the ICC]? None. As a matter of fact, it has even caused us harm, as far as the media is concerned),” Sotto said.
The Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC took effect a year after the country informed the United Nations Secretary-General of its decision to pull out of the treaty following the announcement of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor that it would begin preliminary examination on the crimes against humanity linked to the administration’s drug war.
Sotto said the reports received by the ICC on the current situation, particularly the bloated numbers of the drug war’s death toll, are “muddled.”
Several claims were made that over 20,000 people have died in the government’s war on drugs since 2016.
Recent data from the Philippine National Police, however, showed that over 5,000 people have been killed in drug-related operations since the drug war was launched on July 1, 2016.
“Ang kwento doon, may political persecution, tapos lahat ng deaths nung nakaraang taon ikini-claim nila na EJK (extrajudicial killings) lahat, look at the figures, hindi EJK lahat yun. (The reports they received include political persecution, and all deaths were claimed as EJKs, but by looking at the figures, not all are EJKs),” Sotto said.
“A very small percentage was killed in the police operations. In the last figures that I know, that I have seen, 68,000 plus ang mga drug operations, and there are more than 78,000 arrests. Ang namatay doon sa mga drug operations na ito, a little over 3,000 only (Those who died due to police drug operations are estimated at a little over 3,000 only),” he added.
Earlier, Malacanang said the Philippines never became part of the ICC which the Philippines signed on August 23, 2011, saying it was not published in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.
