MALACAÑANG lambasted the opposition on Monday, March 18, for making "conspiracy theories" about President Rodrigo Duterte's move to terminate the Philippines's membership from the International Criminal Court.
"It is open season of conspiracy theories by the political opposition, the Left and the human rights activists," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
"Suddenly becoming experts in international law and sharing the common advocacy of demonizing the President and his administration on the issue of human rights vis-a-vis the drug war, they make good media copy, which obviously is the intention," he added.
The Philippines was officially out of the ICC on Sunday, March 17, a year after the Duterte government officially notified the United Nations that it was leaving the international tribunal body.
The Philippines is the second country to leave the ICC.
The departure came after the international body launched in February 2018 a preliminary examination on Duterte's crackdown on illegal drugs that has killed thousands of suspected drug personalities and gained global attention.
The Commission on Human Rights lamented that "it is impunity that wins" after the Philippines successfully left the ICC.
Meantime, the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court believed that "those who kill with impunity will only be further emboldened."
The Amnesty International said the Philippines's withdrawal from ICC was a “futile attempt to evade international justice," while Gabriela party-list claimed that the move could “sound off a nastier wave of rights abuses, including red-tagging of Duterte critics.”
Panelo, however, slammed Duterte's critics for issuing "misleading and baseless" reactions on the Philippines's exit from the international court.
"We find amusing the myriad of misleading and baseless response to the supposed withdrawal of the Philippines from the Rome Statute which created the International Criminal Court," he said.
"There is no culture of impunity under this administration. The country’s criminal justice system continues to be operational and strictly compliant with the constitutional requirement of due process," he added.
Panelo also emphasized that the anti-illegal drug campaign was anchored on "national survival," as well as "accountability of those who bring the nation to the precipice of destruction."
He also maintained that extrajudicial killings are "not state-sponsored."
"They are the direct consequence of members of the drug syndicates killing each other either for their own protection or to exact revenge against whistleblowers. Others arise out of turf wars among the drug lords and drug pushers while many of them resulting from botched deals and swindling," Panelo said.
"Deaths in police operations come about as suspects resist arrest with violence that put the police officers in mortal risk. The scores of dead policemen and serious injuries to the hundreds of men in uniform are grim testimonials to the reality that those involved in the drug cartel will not allow themselves to be arrested or captured alive," he added.
Panelo then challenged the opposition who continue to criticize the drug war to file sworn complaints before the appropriate administrative and judicial bodies "to test the validity of their assertion apart from assisting in the administration of justice."
He said critics' failure to bring the issue to the courts can only mean that "they are engaged in conjectures and politicizing the matter to the advantage of drug personalities and criminals."
"The President’s immovable goal in pursuing the relentless drive against the destroyers of society is based on his constitutional duty to serve and protect the people. No force on earth can dissuade or stop him from pursuing such objective and complying with the constitutional order," he said.
"March 17 has passed, the sky has not fallen and the sun still rises on the east. Our people desire policies with immediate results rather than noise emanating from groups closely identified with the [communists] and a defeated major political party which presently are fighting for political survival and relevance," he added.
Despite criticisms, Panelo said the government's fight against the enemies of the state will be continuing with "merciless constitutional force and unstoppable scorching motion until the republic and the people are secure from their evil and destructive clutches." (SunStar Philippines)