Senator Francis Tolentino has accepted Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s request to be his authorized counsel in all proceedings associated to the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the Duterte administration’s drug conflict.
“I accept the letter, the proposal of Senator Dela Rosa to lawyer for him,” Tolentino stated in an internet interview with reporters on Wednesday.
“My role there would be to ensure the protection of Senator Dela Rosa not just within the confines of the ICC because we are claiming that they don’t have jurisdiction [over us], but even locally,” he defined.
Tolentino stated he’s now getting ready all of the paperwork for his correct accreditation as Dela Rosa’s lawyer “if it will come to that point.”
As Dela Rosa’s authorized counsel, Tolentino stated they’ll submit all paperwork or his shopper’s testimony if any administrative or quasi-judicial physique within the Philippines asks for it.
Tolentino will ship a letter to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to “get an exemption” from the rule that incumbent officers should not allowed to observe their career.
Dela Rosa, who earlier described himself because the “number two accused” within the drug conflict probe of the ICC, was then-President Duterte’s first Philippine National Police chief.
Duterte’s drug conflict has been blamed for hundreds of deaths, with authorities figures pegging it round 6,000 however human rights teams saying it might attain as excessive as 30,000.
Tolentino stated he may symbolize former President Rodrigo Duterte if the latter asks him to take action.
Invite for Kamir Khan
Meanwhile, Tolentino additionally disclosed that he can be inviting Kamir Khan, the prosecutor of the ICC, to a Senate justice and human rights listening to on the resolutions filed by Senators Robin Padilla and Jinggoy Estrada, searching for to defend former President Duterte from the worldwide tribunal’s investigation and prosecution.
“I’m thinking of having a resource person coming from the ICC itself. Kung papayag sila kahit Zoom sila (It can be done through Zoom if they accept the invite.) I would want to have Mr. Khan explain the reason why they insisted that the pleading filed by the Office of the Solicitor General was not complete, was not conclusive enough,” he stated.
He was additionally contemplating inviting former President Duterte to take part within the listening to, even by way of teleconference.
Tolentino stated the Senate panel would conduct a listening to to ensure that the Senate to have a unified stand to defend the previous president from the ICC probe.
“There will be a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate because the Senate was the body which ratified, which concurred in this Rome Statute,” he stated.
“Bahagi nitong decision na to malaman talaga kung ano ‘yung gagawin nila kasi whether we like it or not, kasi nga dineny, ni-reject ‘yung suspensive effect ng appeal. Tuloy-tuloy lang ‘yung mga ‘yon. So para maintindihan din nila na kahit magtuloy-tuloy kayo, wala kayong pupuntahan,” he said.
(Part of this resolution is to find out what they will do after they rejected the appeal. We want them to know that even if they proceed, it will lead nowhere.)
Further, Tolentino stated that the ICC must prove that the justice system in the Philippines is not working, tagging this “assumption” as “wrong and misplaced.”
Recently, the ICC rejected the Philippine government’s enchantment searching for the reversal of the worldwide tribunals’ determination to renew the probe into the Duterte administration’s controversial conflict on medication.
In rejecting the Philippines’ enchantment, the ICC Appeals Chamber stated the federal government failed to clarify the Court’s lack of jurisdiction or to offer a proof of the implications and scope of the investigation.
It additionally identified that the native investigation can proceed even with the continuing ICC investigation.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Tuesday stated the Philippines is ending its involvement within the ICC after its Appeals Chamber rejected the bid to droop the investigation into the nation’s drug conflict.
In February, Marcos stated he wouldn’t cooperate with the inquiry of the ICC into the abuses within the marketing campaign in opposition to unlawful medication of the earlier administration. —VAL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
