On the one hand, we have, at least, three men of stature, integrity and principle who can look at the truth in the eye. . They are not like pliant reeds that easily get blown every which way by the passing wind. Sadly, their sheer number tells us that truth seems to abide in the minority, a fact of history. On the other hand, there are others who can’t and blink. They are many and powerful or power-driven.
The three, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, Sen. Koko Pimentel and former SC associate justice Antonio Carpio have one thing in common: they want the Philippine government to honor its word when it signed the Rome Statute in 2011.
All of them do not buy into the specious argument that allowing the International Criminal Court (ICC) to probe the alleged crime against humanity during the war-o n-drugs by the previous administration is an affront to the country’s sovereignty. Those who espouse that position are led by no less than President Marcos himself and his Cabinet, of course. The President hasn’t formed a team of rivals yet as earlier suggested by his elder sister, Senator Imee. Perhaps, she knows from experience why an all-yes men Cabinet has its disadvantage. Maybe the EDSA Revolution of 1986 was a teaching moment.
The President’s line is echoed by former President Gloria Arroyo and other legislators, both from the House of Representatives and the Senate. No sweat: politics and power have trumped what’s best for the country since time immemorial. But we are a people of short memory, especially when dates and events are distorted, intentionally or not, for political and personal reasons, ignoring Santayana’s warning that those who don’t remember the past will reenact it in some other ways, usually equally wrong, if not tragic.
Any lawyer worth his salt should concede Panganiban’s point: when a country enters into an agreement, a sovereign decision, it gives up part of it. Pimentel has earlier cleared the confusion: sovereignty isn’t the issue but cooperation which, essentially, signing the treaty entailed. Carpio must have the same mind, explaining much earlier that the Philippines, even if it had withdrawn, also a sovereign decision, from the ICC is not that neat and cool.
Under Article 127, a withdrawing ICC member is still duty bound to:1) pay its unpaid financial obligations and 2) must cooperate in the investigation of violations committed before it withdrew from the treaty.
The front and center of all this political brouhaha is the man himself: Rodrigo Duterte , Marcos’ predecessor, who has said he will not cooperate with the ICC probe. The first investigation was suspended following an appeal from the Philippine government. The ICC lifted the suspension after it found the documents submitted by the Philippines to support its claim that it can and will – in fact, it has been allegedly performing- the investigation. You have been weighed, so the ICC concluded, but found wanting.
So the show must go on. So everybody that matters and has weight is moving heaven and earth so that the investigation will not happen, by hook or by crook. Secretary Medardo Guevarra is taking care of the hook. It has appealed to the ICC once more to reconsider the probe. Presidential LegaL Counsel, Juan Ponce Enrile ,prefers the crook approach. If they step into Philippine soil, he wants them arrested. Justice Secretary Boying Remulla leans on the Enrile option somewhat by saying there’s no mechanism by which the ICC can do the probe without their cooperation. Come at your own risk.
The ICC will have just begun the process of gathering evidence to prove or disprove the claim, official and unofficial, that from more than 6,000 to 30,000 individuals were killed during the war-on-drugs, even before the mayor from Davao became president. But before it could do so, the President and his allies want to nip it in the bud.
The government’s push back has only heightened the curiosity and resolve of those who want to find the real truth than swallow the collective alibi hook, line and sinker. “The lady protesteth too much , methinks”, Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet. “Mukhang guilty” was said about a man who had problem with intestinal fortitude in an old commercial ad. Will the ICC press even more given the challenging incentive or motivation?
Ironically, letting the ICC probe proceed may be crucial to the Marcos’ call for unity at home and abroad in the face of the daunting challenges both face today. It will restore confidence in its trustworthiness as a member of the international community. Foreign investors will not hesitate to take risk in a country that is rule-based as Marcos himself has assured and vowed to respect human rights.
The mad rush of Marcos and allies to stop the ICC probe dead on its track is best explained by Panganiban’s warning: warrants of arrest for Duterte and other officials may subsequently follow the investigation, and this will tarnish severely the image of the Philippines in the world which, obviously it can ill-afford now.
Recalling another opinion from Kapampangan lawyer Eligio Mallari, president of the Vanguard of the Constitution of the Philippines, the government can remove the country from “ the clutches” of the ICC by proving and convincing the ICC it’s able and willing to do the job. Otherwise, Panganiban’s worst fear may happen. It failed the first time; the second time maybe its last. Calling the ICC probers white or black monkeys as Sen. Jingoy Estrada has been quoted as saying will not help. Name calling is a fool’s errand.
