SolGen: Philippines won't stop ICC from interviewing drug war suspects

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government will not obstruct the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor from interviewing the five newly identified suspects linked to alleged crimes committed during the Duterte administration's bloody anti-narcotics campaign.

This has been confirmed by Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra in an interview with OneNews’ “The Big Story” on Monday evening saying that the government will not “get in the way” of the ICC prosecutor.

“The ICC prosecutor can do that voluntarily by himself, directly talking to these five people,” he said.

He stressed, however, that the government will not be assisting the international prosecutor in the investigation.

“Philippine government through the president has repeatedly stated that we have no legal duty to cooperate or to lend assistance…But that does not mean that the ICC prosecutor cannot continue his investigation, he can do so (and) he can interview these five people directly… all that we’re saying is that the government will not be involved,” Guevarra said.

The five newly-tagged suspects were first revealed by former senator Antonio Trillanes IV on July 28. The document from the international tribunal said former officials of the Philippine National Police were responsible for the ordering of killings of drug suspects and users from 2011 to 2019.

Among the five suspects is former PNP chief and now Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa, who previously said he was unbothered by the ICC's decision to continue its investigation into the drug war in the Philippines. He, however, admitted was scared of being imprisoned. 

Dela Rosa was appointed as the first PNP chief by former President Rodrigo Duterte following his presidential victory in 2016. 

During his tenure, Dela Rosa supervised the enforcement of “Oplan Tokhang,” a controversial anti-narcotics initiative that resulted in thousands of fatalities, according to local and international human rights groups.

The four other suspects are the following: 

According to Guevarra, the ICC prosecutor asked the Philippine government to interview sa five top cops as the fiscal “cannot apply for a warrant of arrest unless he has full information about the facts