The persistent reports that probers of the International Criminal Court were in the country last December, which has struck fear in the hearts of those involved in former president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs that is being investigated as a possible case of a crime against humanity, should not have happened from the start, only if the country’s justice system were working properly and those responsible for such heinous crimes had prosecuted or if Filipinos had a government that was capable of preventing it from happening in our own country.
Stories have been circulating about the arrival of ICC probers. Over the weekend, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV said he had “inside information” that the stories were true and that the probers had gathered sufficient evidence to order the arrest of the primary respondents, led by Duterte and his Philippine National Police chief, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, the reputed architect of the bloody Oplan Tokhang.
Dela Rosa is now complaining, asking President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to explain why there is a contradiction in his previous statement that the latter would not allow ICC probers to visit the country and conduct an investigation. This is pretty rich for someone who smugly told those complaining about the arbitrariness of Oplan Tokhang, that those who haven’t done anything wrong have nothing to fear.
The government officials behind the bloody drug war that has killed thousands, shouldn’t be afraid of the ICC if they have truly done nothing wrong. However, because our justice system has failed to investigate and either exonerate or clear their acts, it seems like that it will have to be done by the ICC, which would be investigating a crime against humanity due to the massive scale of the killings.
While the ICC has displayed its willingness and determination to deliver justice to the victims of the alleged crime against humanity, the Philippine government has essentially done nothing, except maybe break a promise to high government officials that they will be protected from an ICC investigation. Perhaps if we allow the wheels of justice to take its course, and government displays a willingness to do the job that the ICC has to do because no one is doing it, then maybe external forces will no longer be necessary for the truth to be uncovered and justice finally delivered to the numerous victims of the bloody drug war that took thousands of Filipino lives without any due process.*
