Press Release
June 6, 2017

Trillanes, Magdalo charge Duterte at ICC

Senator Antonio "Sonny" F. Trillanes IV, together with Magdalo Party-list Representative Gary C. Alejano, has filed on Tuesday a supplemental complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

In the 45-page communication submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor of ICC, Trillanes and Alejano affirmed and provided updates to the submitted communication of Atty. Jude Sabio before the ICC regarding President Rodrigo Duterte's violation of the Articles of Rome Statute through commission of mass murder or extra-judicial executions constituting crimes against humanity.

Trillanes explained: "The case of crimes against humanity against Duterte is very solid. He repeatedly, explicitly and clearly pronounced a national policy of killing drug suspects and the PNP executed it. Moreover, the Philippines, being a state party and Duterte being a Filipino, satisfy jurisdictional requirements. Any Filipino lawyer who says otherwise, should read the ICC policy papers first."

Trillanes and Alejano also included in the communication the list of killings which transpired after the first communication to the ICC was submitted last April 24 by Atty. Sabio, and other relevant incidents which prove that the killings happening around the country are being done systematically by police through the so-called legitimate police operations, or through vigilante style executions, which are carried out by police themselves masked as part of vigilante groups or through their hired killers.

Alejano added: "As to the complementarity requirements, the abruptly terminated Senate hearings plus Duterte's immunity from suit and with the junking of the impeachment complaint, prove that our government is unwilling and unable to prosecute the perpetrators of the crimes. Therefore, there is still a continuing veil of impunity which enables the carrying out of state-sponsored killings. It is in this regard that we are calling on the ICC to intervene and conduct preliminary examination of the situation in the country in order to prevent further extra-judicial killings and render justice in the country," Alejano further explained.

The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the ICC, the first permanent international court that is capable of trying perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression, the Statute's four core international crimes. The Philippines is a state party to the Rome Statute, together with other 123 state parties, after ratifying it in August 2011.

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