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THE
heads of the National Police and the military on Monday
expressed no objections to the country’s ratification of
the 1998 Rome statute that established the International
Criminal Court (ICC), but maintained that local courts
are capable of handling cases of human-rights abuses,
particularly extrajudicial killings.
The
administration has refused to transmit the instruments
for ratification of the Rome treaty for deliberations by
the Senate citing objections from the National Police
and the Armed Forces, for fear of facing harassment
suits that may be filed against military and police
personnel before the ICC that is based in The Hague, the
Netherlands.
The
Delegation of the European Commission to the
Philippines, foreign embassies and the Philippine
Coalition for the ICC led by former party-list
representative Etta Rosales of Akbayan held a dialogue
on Monday with officials of the National Police, the
Armed Forces, the Army and the National Defense College
on the Rome statute.
Director
General Avelino Razon Jr., National Police chief,
stressed that there is a need for the Philippine
government to ratify the Rome statute to promote and
protect respect for human rights not only in the country
but in the rest of the world.
“By
ratifying the treaty, the Philippines would be sending a
strong signal to the rest of the world that the
Philippines is committed to promoting and protecting
human rights and human dignity, and that perpetrators of
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity have no
place in the world,” said Razon in a statement read by
his representative during the dialogue on the ICC with
the security sector held in a hotel in Mandaluyong on
Monday.
Razon
noted the National Police’s Task Force Usig that
investigates extrajudicial killings has made successes
in the investigation. As of March 31, he said there
were a total of 141 cases involving the killing and
disappearance of 113 militants and 28 media
practitioners, of which 85 cases have been filed in
court, five cases still under investigation and one
dropped.
The
Philippines is one of 120 countries that signed the 1998
Rome statute that created the ICC. On
July 1,
2002, the ICC was established after the required 60
ratifications by the states were met. There are only
seven states in
Asia that ratified the treaty, these are
Cambodia, Timor Leste, Afghanistan, South Korea,
Mongolia, Tajikistan and Japan. The Philippines,
Thailand and Bangladesh have signed the statute but have
yet to ratify it.
The
United States led seven nations that include China,
Israel and Iraq, that voted against the treaty in 1998
and has now gathered more than 100 bilateral immunity
agreements with its political allies to provide immunity
to American soldiers who may be accused of committing
war crimes outside the US. The Philippines, one of the
staunchest political and security allies of the US,
signed the immunity agreement with the
US
in May 2003 that prevents ICC prosecution against US
soldiers committing war crimes in the Philippines.
Ambassador Alistair Macdonald, head of the European
Commission delegation to the Philippines, admitted that
the ICC’s unprecedented role in international justice
has indeed given rise to misunderstandings.
“While
we understand the concerns raised by our partners
worldwide, the European Union sincerely believes the
Rome statute guarantees the highest criteria of justice and
cannot lend itself to political manipulation,” said
Macdonald.
“We
believe the Rome statute contains a robust set of
safeguards and checks and balances to avoid any such
risk,” he added in a statement read by French deputy
chief of mission Didier Ortolland. France holds the EU
presidency this year. |
