THE Senate blue ribbon committee has opened a motu proprio inquiry into former president Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs from 2016 to 2022. The inquiry is taking place while Congress is in recess and is presided by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino 'Koko' Pimentel III, an ex officio member of the committee, rather than by Sen. Pia Cayetano, its chairman. This arrangement is not clear to all and needs to be fully explained. I hope Pimentel will explain it on his own. Like Duterte, Pimentel is from Mindanao, and served as Senate president during Duterte's first two years in Malacañang. He should give Duterte a fair deal, but he needs to do a bit more.

Duterte is accused before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague of ordering the extrajudicial killing of illegal drug users. The Marcos government has denied ICC jurisdiction over Duterte, saying the Philippine justice system is fully competent and able to prosecute any case against him, over which the ICC would like to exercise jurisdiction. Under the Statute of Rome, which created the ICC in 1998, the court assumes jurisdiction over crimes against humanity if and when a particular state is unable or unwilling to prosecute the alleged crimes.