JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla will confer with Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra to discuss the government’s next move in connection with the International Criminal Court’s ruling allowing the resumption of its investigation into the unnecessary deaths committed during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

“I will speak to the solicitor general about the course of action that we will take as a country here,” Remulla, who stood pat on his stance that the ICC lacks jurisdiction to conduct an investigation, said.

Guevarra on Friday said they will “exhaust all available remedies including an appeal with the ICC appeals chamber.

” We have received information that the pre-trial chamber of the ICC has authorized the ICC prosecutor to resume investigation into the Philippine situation. While we have not received an official copy of this resolution, it is our intention to exhaust our legal remedies, more particularly elevating the matter to the ICC appeals chamber.”

“We wish to emphasize that our own domestic investigative and judicial processes should take precedence, and we can show that despite structural and resource limitations in our legal system, it is still a well-functioning system that yields positive results in its own time, ” Guevarra said.

The Philippine Justice Department led a panel of several government agencies, including law enforcement units, in reviewing 5,655 anti-drug operations that resulted in deaths to see whether to file charges against the police officers involved.

The DOJ has been granted unprecedented access to PNP’s records of deaths during the government’s war on drugs.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Hector Lawas