ICC PROBE
FORMER Senator Leila de Lima has expressed fervent hope the International Criminal Court (ICC) will issue within this year warrants of arrest for the suspects in the deadly drug war during the previous administration.
De Lima yesterday testified in the hearing conducted by the House Committee on Human Rights which is looking into alleged drug-related extrajudicial killings (EJKs).
De Lima lamented slow progress and minimal results of the government investigation into the EJKs.
She underscored the importance of the ICC’s ongoing investigation, particularly its office of the prosecutor (OTP), describing it as “light years ahead of our local investigatiin” in terms of holding high-ranking officials accountable.
“We fervently await the application of the OTP and the issuance by the ICC pretrial chamber of warrants of arrest hopefully within the year,” De Lima said.
She reiterated her charges against former President Rodrigo Duterte laying the blame squarely on him for the violent war on drugs.
The former senator closed her opening remarks with a message from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines: “No matter the moral correctness of the zeal against the drug menace, it can never be a moral justification for summary executions.”
