Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III claims sovereignty is not the issue since we own the decision to cooperate with the ICC. I, however, see some unconscionable assumptions in the good senator’s stand.
Firstly, the Philippine government is capable and has expressed its willingness to investigate the country’s EJK cases. But the ICC high-handedly disregards this and insists on its own investigation, alleging it has found the job our DOJ has been doing of it to be weak and unreliable.
Senator Pimentel must know that the ICC can investigate only if our DOJ is unwilling or unable and requests for it. In proposing, therefore, that we cooperate with the ICC, he is in effect asking us to allow the ICC to overstep our sovereignty and implement our laws for us. We cannot cooperate with the ICC unless we first surrender our sovereignty and request the ICC to do our work for us.
Secondly, although unfortunately we must admit our justice system is weak for being so politically compromised, that does not give the ICC the right to come in and implement our laws for us. It is for the sovereign Filipino nation to judge that there is a problem with their justice system and for them, not the ICC or any foreign body, to decide what to do about it.
Finally, who is the “we” Senator Koko Pimentel is referring to? I ask because in our country the Senate and the House of Representatives do not speak for the people, only for themselves.
Having said all that, I must nevertheless admit that although I welcome the sovereign decision, I have no illusions this is motivated by a desire to conform to the people’s will and keep the nation’s self-respect. Self-respect is a rare quality among our elected officials and it’s not in our oxymoron of an elitist undemocratic system that elite rulers heed the people’s voice.
Hence, this discourse is really less about commending our officials for acting sovereign but with less than noble motives. It’s more about condemning the ICC’s disdainful and arrogant insistence on doing what properly is our duty and responsibility as a sovereign nation—to establish the facts on alleged EJKs and prosecute the perpetrators.
We do not have self-respect if we refuse to own our problems and their solutions. Without self-respect there can be no true sovereignty, only political expediency which I have reasons to suspect is what is really running this country.
Still, after all is said and done, that the ICC finds our justice system below its standards does not give it the right to look down on us, sneer at our (substandard?) ways, do our thing, and thus arrogantly overstep the bounds of our sovereignty.