ASEANews HEADLINE: MANILA- EJK admission boosts rights case vs Duterte — lawmakers
Lawmakers on Friday said President Rodrigo Duterte’s “acknowledgment” of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) would boost the case filed against him before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“We’re glad that Duterte admitted the EJKs and though he said that there’s no evidence that he committed [them], he forgot that his own admission is in fact evidence against him,” Bayan Muna Chairman and former congressman Neri Colmenares said in a statement on Friday.
He was referring to the statement of the President on Thursday that his only sin was extra-judicial killings.
.
– SPACE RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT –
.
Colmenares was a lawyer for families of EJK victims who had filed a communication before the ICC, the world’s only permanent war crimes court.
The communication is the “strongest so far” because it was the families who filed it and because it contains “strong evidence,” according to him.
Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano echoed this sentiment, saying “the President is only making the ICC’s job easier.”
.
– SPACE RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT –
.
“Lalong pinapadali lamang ng Pangulo ang trabaho ng ICC kung saan nakahain ang reklamo ng iba’t ibang grupo mula sa ibang bansa laban sa kanya sa kasong ‘crime against humanity’(The President is only making the ICC’s job easier where complaints from groups from different countries were filed against him for his ‘crime against humanity’),” Alejano said.
He said such remark should not be ignored, contrary to Malacanang’s statement.
“Ang bawat salita ng Pangulo ay may bigat at kapangyarihan (Every word of the President has gravity and power),” Alejano added.
“Ako? Sabi ko nga sa military, ano kasalanan ko? Nagnakaw ba ako dyan ni piso? Did I prosecute na pinakulong ko? Ang kasalanan ko lang, yung mga extrajudicial killings (Me? I told the military, what are my sins? Did I steal even a peso? Did I prosecute anyone that I jailed? My only sin are extrajudicial killings),” the President said in his speech in Malacañang on Thursday.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. was quick to downplay the remark and said in an interview that “it should not be taken seriously.”
“You know the President. He is not serious. He just says that, because (critics) always say that is what he is doing. But, it is just underlining that he is not stealing, but I do not think the context of that is literal,” Roque added.
He denied that the admission was self-incriminating because it was not a sworn statement.
“In the first place, that is not a sworn statement, so how can that be self-incriminating? No. That’s the President being himself, being playful, highlighting the point that he is not corrupt,” Roque said.
The President’s top legal adviser, Salvador Panelo, also on Friday said the statement of Duterte was taken out of context.
In a radio interview aired over dwFM, Panelo said Duterte’s statement meant that “the issue for him, as President, is extrajudicial killing.”
“What the President meant was [that], if you look at his previous statements. He [is just being]consistent with what he is saying,” he said.
According to a government-backed campaign named Real Numbers PH, 4,854 alleged drug personalities have been killed since Duterte launched his campaign against illegal drugs in 2016.
Human right groups, however, said deaths have reached 13,000 since the start of the drug war.
The President is facing a preliminary examination over the alleged extrajudicial killings in the country upon complaints separately filed by human rights lawyer Jude Sabio and opposition lawmakers Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th and Alejano before the ICC.
ASEAN NEWS STAND FRONTPAGES:
All photographs, news, editorials, opinions, information, data, others have been taken from the Internet..aseanews.net | [email protected] / For comments, Email to : Aseanews.Net |
