‘The highly esteemed justices know too well the track record of the ICC and its remarkable zeal and vaunted commitment. It may not be worthwhile
to ultimately tangle with its seasoned prosecutors.’
THE recent ruling of the Supreme Court upholding the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the thousands of drug killings despite the government’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute is indeed a fresh wind to the stark and paralyzing climate that has seized the three branches of government.
The forced closure of ABS-CBN and the passing of the Anti-terror Law have bred coalesced silence instead of the lawfully mandated check-and-balance. Authored by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen in a 101-page decision, the court said “withdrawing from the Rome Statute does not discharge a state party from the obligations it has incurred as a member.
Consequently, liability for the alleged summary killings and other atrocities committed in the course of the war on drugs is not nullified or negated here.”
International pressure from the media and powerful Western countries apparently came to bear on the justices of the high court, who delivered a stunning unanimous vote. The highly esteemed justices know too well the track record of the ICC and its remarkable zeal and vaunted commitment. It may not be worthwhile to ultimately tangle with its seasoned prosecutors. backed by the United Nations.
And the bigger question: Will the SC justices be on the right side of history which fools cannot rewrite?
In its “promotion and enforcement of the rule of law worldwide” the ICC has tried presidents, prime ministers, military generals and top government officials accused variously of gross human rights violations, including genocide and mass executions, and sentenced to long prison terms. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death.
Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic was the first president of a country tried before the ICC for his role in the killings of Bosnian Muslims, Croats, and Kosovo Albanians in his genocidal campaign for ethnic cleansing. He died in prison during his trial.
So far, the ICC has indicted 47 individuals that included Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, former Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Libyan Revolutionary leader Muammar Kadhaffi, President Laurent Gocaldo of the Ivory Coast and Former Vice-President Jean Pierre Bamba of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
