Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) — Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra on Friday said former Senator Leila de Lima has the privilege to help the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its investigation of the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs now that she is a private person.
But he maintained that the Philippine government will not cooperate with the ICC prosecutor’s probe, which would continue after the court’s Appeals Chamber rejected the country’s plea in July.
READ: ICC to continue probe into Duterte’s drug war; court chamber junks PH appeal
Guevarra was reacting to reports that De Lima has expressed willingness to help the ICC in its investigation on the previous administration’s drug war that killed thousands.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ Politics As Usual on Wednesday, De Lima urged the Marcos administration to reconsider its stance on the ICC probe.
“[Former] Senator De Lima is now a private individual and nothing prevents any private person to assist the ICC investigator in pursuing ‘yung kanyang [his] investigation in the Philippines,” Guevarra told reporters.
“So that’s her privilege if she wants to help the ICC prosecutor,” he added.
Guevarra, the government’s legal counsel, reiterated the ICC prosecutor must not expect cooperation from the Philippines since the country “has no obligation or duty” to do so.
READ: PH gov’t ends engagement with ICC following rejected plea vs. drug war probe
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier said his administration would “continue to question the jurisdiction of the ICC in their investigations here in the Philippines.”
EXPLAINER: ICC and its authority
“Ang theory natin diyan, [Our theory is that] we are not protecting any person, this is not about certain individuals,” Guevarra told reporters. “What the republic, through the OSG, wants to impress upon the international community is that our domestic legal and judicial system is functioning.”
A Muntinlupa court granted bail to the former senator for her remaining drug case on Nov. 13, giving her provisional liberty after nearly seven years of detention.
De Lima — one of the staunchest critics of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign — was acquitted of her first two drug cases.
On recent developments on De Lima’s cases
Guevarra also said there was no direct relation to the supposed weakening of cases against the former senator filed during the previous administration as the new government came in.
RELATED: Remulla: De Lima will likely be acquitted in drug case
“It’s more on the evaluation of evidence,” he said. “I’d like to believe the changes in the attitude of the courts depend to a significant degree on the quality of evidence being presented in court.”
He also did not comment on claims that the Department of Justice presented “manufactured evidence” against the former lawmaker.
Guevarra was the second justice secretary during Duterte’s presidency. He was appointed in 2018.
The granting of bail comes nearly a month after two more witnesses recanted their testimonies against De Lima.
The DOJ, under its former chief Vitaliano Aguirre II, filed three separate cases against De Lima in 2017.
