Dropped communication vs. Duterte ‘sucker punch’ to
ICC: Andanar
Presidential
Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar said he
anticipated Sabio to drop the communication since they were “baseless and
unfounded.”
“This
revelation is a sucker punch to the ICC and all the human rights groups that
have been deceived by the perpetrators of unreliable, fabricated, and tainted
information,” Andanar said in a statement.
Andanar
explained that Sabio’s move only revealed that it was “nothing more than
political propaganda of oppositionists against the administration.”
He condemned
the opposition anew for undermining the President and this administration’s
effective crackdown on illegal drugs.
The PCOO
chief also insisted that the administration’s anti-illegal drugs campaign has
always respected due process and the rule of law.
He also
assured that the administration never condoned extrajudicial killings
perpetrated by rogue cops and paid vigilantes.
The
government, he said, continues to cleanse its law enforcement agencies.
“Despite
malicious muckraking, this government will continue President Duterte’s
programs and campaigns against criminality and illegal drugs as part of this
administration’s legacy of peace and order and public safety,” Andanar said.
“Let’s all keep in mind that truth will continue to prevail.”
In a
separate statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said it appeared
that Sabio was merely tapped by former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to file the
complaint against the President.
"The
professional tie between the two has since turned sour owing to Trillanes’
alleged failure to pay Sabio’s professional fees leading to the latter’s
withdrawal of his complaint before the ICC,” he said.
“Trillanes
must be squirming in his disgraced retirement by Sabio’s turnabout,” he added.
Panelo said
the ICC should be awakened to the fact that Duterte’s enemies want to fulfill
the “impossible dream” to topple the current administration.
“The ICC has
to wake up from its stupor if not ignorance,” Panelo said.
In its
report on “preliminary examination activities” for 2019, the ICC sought the
conclusion of its initial review of Duterte’s drug war by 2020 to determine the
possible conduct of a full-blown investigation into the Philippines’ campaign
against the narcotics trade.
The
Philippines was officially out of the ICC on Mar. 17, 2019, but the
international body still proceeded with its preliminary examination of the
anti-narcotics campaign initiated by Duterte despite the country’s exit.
In February
2018, the ICC launched a preliminary examination of Duterte's crackdown on
illegal drugs based on Sabio's communication that accuses the President of
committing crimes against humanity for the killings of thousands of drug
offenders from July 1, 2016 to Mar. 31, 2017.
On Tuesday,
Sabio asked ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to remove his name from the
communications sent to the international tribunal. (Azer Parrocha/PNA)
