Palace: No Basis To Impeach Duterte: Not An Expert

Palace: No basis to impeach Duterte
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte cannot be impeached on the basis of his supposed admission of the
“sin” of ordering extrajudicial killings (EJKs), Malacañang insisted on Monday.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said there was no solid evidence to implicate Duterte, as he
reiterated that the President never admitted guilt for any crime.
“I’m sure it will also be dismissed by Congress not because it’s a political process, but because it’s
utterly bereft of merit,” Roque told reporters.
Antonio “Tony” La Viña, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government and opposition figures
such as former congressman Neri Colmenares have claimed that Duterte could be held liable for
culpable violation of the Constitution for admitting to authorizing extrajudicial killings.
The President on Thursday said the summary executions that had taken place under his war on
drugs were his only “sin.”
“What are your sins? Me? I told the military ‘what are my sins?’ Did I steal money? Even just one
peso? Did I prosecute somebody I sent to jail? My only sin is extrajudicial killings,” Duterte said
in remarks to career civil service executives.
La Viña, in an interview with dzBB radio, said: “It’s clear he wasn’t joking when he said that. The
demeanor was very clear.”
“It came from the mouth of the President. You don’t need to prove that. That’s called admission
against interest.
That’s the highest and strongest evidence. Because nobody confesses unless they mean it,” he
added.
La Viña said there was no more need to prove Duterte’s guilt before the International Criminal
Court (ICC), which is hearing complaints of human rights violations under the Duterte drug war,
because there was already admission.
Not an expert
Roque, however, reminded La Viña about the proper context of the President’s statement on
extrajudicial killings, saying there was no admission on the part of Duterte.
“He (La Viña) is simply wrong. He is not specialist in the field. He’s wrong. It presupposes that our
judicial system is not working in the first place. It presupposed that the President actually
admitted to murder. Did he? Not by virtue of the context of what he said. As I said, there is even
no crime as EJK. It’s a misnomer because you know there can be judicial killings in this country
because we have done away with the death penalty,” he said.
Roque also said the President merely emphasized that he was never accused of corruption nor
was he engaged in political vendetta.
“I’d like to reiterate that the context of what the President said is that EJKs are the only criticisms
labeled against him and that no one has ever accused him of corruption. I don’t think this
amounts to admission because for it to be an admission or declaration against interest, he must
have explicitly admitted to the crime of murder, which he has not,” Roque said.
“I’d like to emphasize that there’s actually no crime under both domestic laws or international
laws as EJK. In fact, this is misleading term because killing in our Constitution and in our laws is
never legal so there’s no such thing as extrajudicial killings. So it’s either a lawful killing or an
unlawful killing,” he added.
No ICC jurisdiction
Duterte’s remark came months after his critics filed a complaint against him before the ICC to
hold him liable for the deaths of thousands of drug suspects.
But Roque insisted that the ICC had no jurisdiction to try Duterte for crimes against humanity in
connection with his anti-narcotics campaign due to “complementarity principle.”
“I am at the very least amused at statements of some of the critics of the President saying that
this declaration or so-called admission will bolster their complaint in the ICC. I’d like to reiterate
that there is no pending preliminary investigation in the ICC as of yet. What is pending only is a
communication addressed to the prosecutor… Having said that, number one, this cannot be
taken as an admission, as I said, because the President was not admitting to murder. Number
two, before it can be admitted, it presupposes that the international criminal court already has
jurisdiction,” he said.
Roque added that although the President enjoys immunity from suit, the local courts have not
declared their unwillingness and inability to investigate war on drugs.
“I reiterate, because of the principle of complementarity, the ICC can only have jurisdiction if our
courts, our prosecutors, are unable or unwilling to exercise jurisdiction. We have a domestic
statute also penalizing crime against humanity and therefore it is incumbent upon the
complainants to show that the Philippine judicial system, the Philippine justice system, is simply
not working,” he said.
“I will repeat this, every lawyer, every judge in this country should be insulted by the statement
made by the individuals that the ICC should exercise jurisdiction. I refuse to concede and admit
as Filipino lawyer, as an officer of the court that our courts are unable or unwilling to exercise
jurisdiction. We have a working criminal justice system in the Philippines. Those who have
complaints against the President better file their complaints against him here in the Philippines,”
Roque added.
The Duterte administration has been accused of thousands of summary executions under its war
on drugs. It has denied involvement.
Per official government estimates, at least 4,854 drug suspects have been killed in police anti-
drug operations.
But human rights groups and government critics say this figure is understated, alleging that
killings carried out by so-called “vigilante groups” were also state-sponsored, citing cases where
some policemen were caught in illegitimate operations.

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