PH court, not ICC, prosecute EJKs during PRRD drug war
LOST in the ICC vs. drug war debate at the House of Representative that focused on citing laws and violations of human rights, is the plight of millions of families vs. the drug syndicates, their dealers and political-police protectors.
It was erroneous to condemn the drug war that saved millions of families only from financial distress but emotional crisis. Sadly, not even the mainstream national media bothered to call attention to this misplaced direction.
It was even ironic that the drumbeaters for human rights only talked about the imagined brutal 30,000 extra judicial killings during the declared war on drugs by the Duterte administration without identifying all the victims.
Not a single congressman stood up to defend the government against moves to compel government to cooperate with the ongoing International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation. Not one dared to cite the criminal cases filed by PNP to prove that the judicial system in the country is working and that despite the reported abuses saved millions of sons, daughters, fathers and mothers from the clutches of the drug syndicates. No one even mentioned the 5,000 cases filed by the Philippine National Police against the scalawags in their ranks charged for allegedly killing suspected and unarmed drug street dealers.
It’s obvious that the sense of the human rights groups is to have ICC, not themselves, to prosecute and jail past president Rodrigo Duterte, to make him responsible for the abuses committed by his subordinates.
But why not let Philippine courts take jurisdiction of the case where actual and reality check on the abuses committed by the drug war can be assessed, where those clearly involved in EJKs can be prosecuted, where families can testify that the drug war protected them, which was the main objective of the drug war.
The declaration of the drug was timely if not already too late for the country. While it did not succeed in completely eliminating the drug menace, it succeeded in putting the drug syndicates, at bay, cutting their easy access to vulnerable families for six long years.
Besides, what’s the track record of ICC when it never dared to prosecute and jail past heads of other foreign governments like Mexico, USA, China, UK, etc. for atrocities committed in their anti-drugs campaign. Find ICC mostly in Africa, and not even for EJKs in a drug war.
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