THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has warned all government officials and employees, including police officers, that they would be made accountable should they cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators looking into drug war killings during the Duterte administration.
“When a government officer or official is coordinating with the ICC against the direction, or the order and the policy, of the government, there may be accountability involved,” DOJ Assistant Secretary Mico Clavano said in a Malacañang press briefing.
“If there is a law enforcement or government official that goes against the policies and orders of the authorities in position, then, obviously, there will be some sort of conflict of interest,” he warned.
“There will be accountabilities and, definitely, liabilities that go with it,” Clavano said.
He issued the statement after former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV revealed that ICC investigators had contacted more than 50 police officers involved in alleged drug killings in the previous administration.
Trillanes said the ICC investigators gave the police officers the exonerate themselves so they would not be considered suspects in the complaint for crimes against humanity.
Clavano said the government had been consistent “from the very start” that “we have a working justice system here in the Philippines evidenced by a lot of different cases and reforms that we’ve been undertaking.”
“The President has been very firm in saying that we will not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC because we indeed have a very well and robust justice system,” he said.
