The role of International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) to prosecute anyone who committed crimes against mankind is a viable alternative whenever there is a glaring dysfunction of local justice system. Crimes against humanity such as mass murder, atrocities on women and abuse of children shall be prosecuted by ICT when it is found that there is a blatant failure of the state’s justice system to go after the identified criminals. The Statue for International Criminal Tribunal had been ratified by 120 states in 1998 at Rome, and the Philippines is one of the signatories of the Treaty. Past leaders like Slobodan Milošević of Yugoslavia and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, were both tried and sentenced for war crimes by ICT.
In the event, a particular country’s justice system refused to investigate and prosecute criminal acts committed by its own leader or leaders, the ICT on the principle of complementary shall assume jurisdiction over the unsolved crimes allegedly condoned and encouraged by the State. The Philippines as signatory of the Treaty, must abide and honor the intervention of such international body in its investigation. It is an international commitment that shall spell whether the Philippine government is serious on its duty as signatory of the Statue of ICT. Any acts of dishonoring such diplomatic commitment shall have untold future political as well as economic repercussions.
The utterance of killing criminals has become a fearful catalyst that drove those bold vigilante killers to put the law on their hands. Every time the leader publicly pronounced extermination of criminals, the whole content of the message has been used as license by anonymous vigilante assailants to kill alleged criminals, to kill alleged drug addicts, to kill suspected rapists, to kill suspected bandits and leaving state authorities clueless on the culture of anarchy that resonates throughout Philippine society nowadays. The line that tells about the condition when police officers are permitted to shoot apprehended criminals has been removed from the sub consciousness of the President’s listeners. The statement such as: “Kill the criminals if they put a good fight, if they resist arrest” and other conditions wherein police officers shall use the last recourse of force as stipulated in their manual of engagement, the reading of the message of the President has been taken out of context.
Only the message of killing has been retained and this has gradually emboldened vigilante killers to proceed in their personal crusade of eliminating undesirable elements through brutal and cowardly acts of shooting helpless and unarmed victims. Here is a famous line which depicts the life of a vigilante assailant: “Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.” No wonder, today’s vigilante hit man could be tomorrow’s next prized target of their contemporary vigilante killers. Soon their ranks decimate through treachery and internal squabbling. Praying that someday, we shall overcome these bloodshed and lawlessness. We Shall Overcome became the protest song of the Civil Rights Movement of the late 50’s until the early 60s. I love the rendition of Joan Baez on the song: