Quad won't give ICC drug war probe records

The quad committee of the House of Representatives will not provide the International Criminal Court (ICC) with copies of affidavits and transcriptions of testimonies of witnesses and resource persons in its investigation on extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration.

In an interview yesterday on dzBB, quad comm overall chair Rep. Robert Ace Barbers maintained that the country is no longer a member of the ICC and thus not obliged to provide the international court with records of its investigation.

“As far as the ICC, we will not give any transcript or any documents, affidavit or transcript of the testimonies of the witnesses because we firmly held that we are not a member of the ICC, as for now,” Barbers said.

“We have no obligation to submit to them any documents that are in the hands of quad comm,” he added.

He said it would be easy anyway for the ICC to get details of the quad comm hearings as they were all shown live on TV and social media.

“If we will look at it, their (ICC) investigation has been continuous. What I know is that they have interviewed a lot here in our country. We, as far as the quad comm is concerned, if they will need documents or any testimony coming from the quad comm, we will not give that. If they want to access information and they want to establish a lead, they can browse from the social media platform. Our hearing is available livestream on social media,” Barbers said. The next hearing of the quad comm is on Nov. 21.

On whether they would invite former president Rodrigo Duterte again, Barbers said quad comm members would have to discuss this first and make a final decision before Nov. 21.

He also said that based on Duterte’s testimony last Wednesday, extrajudicial killings appeared to be a state policy during the previous administration.