‘Wag urong-sulong’: Pimentel urges ICC to decide on PH drug war probe

FILE PHOTO: Protesters calling to stop extra-judicial killings march towards the presidential Malacanang Palace during a protest to commemorate President Rodrigo Duterte’s final year in office, in Manila, Philippines, June 30, 2021. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez/File Photo

MANILA, Philippines — The International Criminal Court (ICC) should decide “once and for all” on what it wants do on the cases lodged before it against then President Rodrigo Duterte for his bloody war on drugs, Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said on Monday.

“The ICC is an independent international organization. We should allow them to decide autonomously. Pero wag na kasi sila urong-sulong,” Pimentel III said in a text message, when asked about the possible resumption of the Hague-based ICC’s investigation of the Philippines’ war on illegal drugs.

Pimentel was the former chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations during the last Congress.

“Yan ang advice ko sa ICC: decide once and for all on what you want to do so the PH can also react properly,”   he added.

The probe was suspended in November 2021 upon the request of the Philippine government.

“The Prosecution has temporarily suspended its investigative activities while it assesses the scope and effect of the deferral request,” a report of ICC Prosecutor Karim read then.

According to Pimentel,  it would be a “waste of time” to always react to all the developments within the ICC.

“Let’s react to a final decision and action,” he stressed.

Time and energy, he said,  should be  better  spent on the Filipino people’s major and immediate concerns like poverty, which he said,  “made more burdensome by a looming food crisis,” as well as education problems.

The senator also cited  the problems on energy costs, weak economy, inflation, lack of jobs, and “gigantic debt” which  he said doubled in just  six years.

EDV