MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 other senior officials were accused on Monday of mass murder before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the ongoing killings of crime and drug suspects.
The complaint was filed in The Hague-based court by a Filipino lawyer representing a self-confessed hit man for Duterte while he was still the mayor of the southern city of Davao.
Lawyer Jude Josue Sabio cited the thousands of drug and crime suspects who have been killed since Duterte took over as president inJune 2016.
This is the first time that a Philippine leader has been accused of crimes against humanity.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the complaint was nothing more than another attempt to embarrass the Philippine government.
“The timing of the filing of the case is suspect, apparently meant to create negative news in the midst of the Philippines’ Asean debut,”he said, referring to the upcoming leaders’ summit of the 10-country Asean.
Abella said the ICC complaint would not succeed because the ICC could only exercise jurisdiction over a case once legal remedies within thecountry have been exhausted. He emphasized that Sabio did not avail of any remedies provided under Philippine laws.
“It is a cynical effort against the reform-oriented agenda of the Duterte administration and the betterment of the lives of the Filipino people,” he said.
Sabio said the killings started when Duterte became mayor of Davao City in 1988, a position that Duterte and his family have held since.
“The grim statistics of more than 7,000 drug-related killings cannot be anything but grave, especially if viewed in the context of just seven months since Rodrigo Duterte became the president,” he said in his 77-page complaint. — dpa
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