NBI: More ICC warrants likely within one month
More arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in relation to the drug war campaign of the past administration may be expected within a month, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Melvin Matibag said on Friday.
During a roundtable discussion with Inquirer, Matibag was asked about how long the waiting game will be for the next issuance of warrants of arrest will be after Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.
However, Matibag said that he does not have an idea if the arrest warrants will be issued separately or not.
“I don’t know because there is really a push. Those who are pushing for this are very active. Not from the government,” he said.
When asked how the NBI and other law enforcement agencies will ensure that dela Rosa’s evasion of arrest will not happen again, Matibag said that the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte and the recent situation with the senator will serve as a “learning experience.”
“Good thing now, there is already a guidance somehow from the Supreme Court when it issued the denial of the TRO (temporary restraining order),” he added.
On the same day that dela Rosa appeared in the Senate after being absent for six months, he was placed under protective custody amid a possible serving of an arrest warrant from the ICC. Later that day, the ICC publicly confirmed the existence of the arrest warrant against him.
The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I said it found reasonable grounds to believe that dela Rosa was individually responsible for crimes against humanity for murder under article 7(1) (a) of the Rome Statute, which was committed between July 3, 2016, and the end of April 2018, during which no less than 32 persons were killed. Dela Rosa served as the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) during this time.
But as dela Rosa went into hiding again after the Senate shooting incident, the Department of Justice instructed the NBI and the PNP to effect the arrest warrant against him. This came after the Supreme Court denied his petition for a TRO to prevent the arrest against him.
More warrants
Matibag earlier said that his agency received information that “several” other personalities will be issued arrest warrants from the ICC, noting that the NBI follows a protocol in serving a warrant regardless of the personalities involved and the crimes allegedly committed.
Last Feb. 13, the ICC named dela Rosa, Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and other personalities as former President Rodrigo Duterte’s coperpetrators in the alleged commission of crimes against humanity for the implementation of the drug war campaign.
In the redacted version of the Document Containing Charges submitted by the Office of the Prosecution, it stated that “[a]t least between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019, Duterte and his co-perpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralise’ alleged criminals in the Philippines, including those perceived or alleged to be associated with drug use, sale or production) through violent crimes, including murder (“Common Plan”).
