By The Telegraph (World News) | Created at 2024-11-15 10:30:12 | Updated at 2024-11-15 12:37:03
2 hours ago
The Philippines has said it will not intervene if Interpol issues a red notice to arrest the former president, Rodrigo Duterte, over his bloody “war on drugs”.
Pitched as an anti-narcotics crackdown, roughly 6,000 people officially died during Mr Duterte’s controversial “war on drugs”, which began when he was mayor of the southern city Davao, and expanded after his election as president in 2016.
But human rights groups estimate the true death toll could exceed 20,000 during his presidency alone, as thousands of people were killed in mysterious circumstances.
While the police have insisted they only killed in self defence, there have been widespread reports that they acted with impunity, allegedly falsifying crime scenes and systematically shooting unarmed suspects.
Amid global condemnation, the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched an official inquiry in 2021, following a three year “preliminary investigation”.
Mr Duterte had taken the Philippines out of the ICC in 2019, but the court said its prosecutors still have jurisdiction over alleged crimes that took place before the withdrawal.
Now, for the first time, the government has said it will cooperate with the ICC – the court of last resort for crimes that countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute themselves – after it resumed a stalled investigation into Mr Duterte last year.
“If the ICC refers the process to Interpol, which may then transmit a red notice to the Philippine authorities, the government will feel obliged to consider the red notice as a request to be honoured,” executive secretary Lucas Bersamin, the most senior cabinet member, said on Wednesday.
He added that the government would neither object nor block Mr Duterte if he did choose to surrender.
The comments came after the former president – whose daughter is currently the vice president in a ticket headed by the scion of another major political dynasty, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who she has fallen out with – faced a congressional hearing into the bloody crackdown, where he gave conflicting statements about whether he would submit to an ICC investigation.
The bullish, brash-speaking politician said he would physically kick any ICC investigator who faced him.
The 79-year-old also said: “The ICC does not scare me a bit. They can come here any time.
“I’m asking the ICC to hurry up and come here and start the investigation tomorrow… this issue has been hanging for many years and I may already die. If I’m found guilty, I can go to prison and rot there for all time.”
In previous committee hearings earlier last month, it was alleged that Mr Duterte’s office had paid the police up to 1m pesos (£13,200) per killing during the crackdowns, depending upon the target. He denies the claims, but has admitted to maintaining a “death squad” of criminals to kill other criminals while serving as mayor of Davao.
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