International Criminal Court

Catholic, Protestant leaders urge gov’t to cooperate with ICC drug war probe

Robbin M. Dagle

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Catholic, Protestant leaders urge gov’t to cooperate with ICC drug war probe

DRUG WAR. A file photo of a crime scene in President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.

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'The recent action of the outgoing ICC prosecutor is a step closer to our prayer for truth and accountability,' says the National Council of Churches in the Philippines

Leaders from the Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches expressed support for a recent move that may pave the way for the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed by the Duterte government in its war on drugs.

“We think that it is just and moral for the government to cooperate with the ICC, to render justice to the hundreds of thousands of victims who were unfairly executed in this drug war,” said Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) in a statement on Friday, June 18.

The NCCP is the largest organization of mainline Protestant and non-Roman Catholic Churches in the Philippines.

“After a long and arduous struggle for justice, a ray of hope has been cast. The recent action of the outgoing ICC prosecutor is a step closer to our prayer for truth and accountability, of bringing justice to the kith and kin of those who were killed because of the government’s drug war,” Marigza said.

A few days before leaving office, then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda formally requested the ICC for judicial authorization to probe the drug war killings committed while the Philippines was still a member of the tribunal

This period covers July 2016 to March 2019 during Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency, and 2011 to 2016, when he was still mayor and, for a time, vice mayor of Davao City.

Records differ on the exact number of those killed in the Duterte administration’s drug war depending on the source, but human rights groups estimate this to be as high as 27,000.

Earlier, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, temporary head of the Archdiocese of Manila, called Bensouda’s move as “a welcome development.” Pabillo also dared the government to uphold accountability and cooperate fully with the investigation if it had nothing to hide. 

Kung wala silang kasalanan, ba’t hindi sila mag-participate (If the government did nothing wrong, why are they refusing to participate)?” Pabillo told reporters in a June 16 press briefing for Cardinal Jose Advincula’s installation as the new Archbishop of Manila on June 24.

On June 15, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that the government will not cooperate with the ICC investigation, calling it “politically-motivated.”

Some members of the religious sector have been staunch critics of the Duterte government’s bloody war on drugs. Because of this, Duterte had repeatedly lashed out and threatened members of the clergy, even calling them “hypocrites” and “sons of bitches.” – Rappler.com

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