SOLICITOR General Jose Calida said Tuesday that he will ask the Supreme Court to disbar the lawyer who filed a complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 government officials before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.
Calida said the complaint of Jude Sabio, legal counsel of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, against Duterte were "malicious" and "baseless".
"It appears that this lawyer is in the business of maliciously filing baseless suits based only on hearsays and unfounded suspicions," the top government lawyer said in a statement.
Calida said this is not the first time that Sabio will face a complaint for filing a "groundless" case against an individual.
In 2008, the SC sanctioned Sabio for violating the Lawyers' Code of Professional Responsibility when he filed a groundless bribery charge against Cabuyao, Laguna Municipal Trial Court of Cities Judge Alden Cervantes.
He was directed to pay P5,000 by the SC and was warned that a more severe penalty would be imposed had he repeat the questioned act.
"This perennial loser stubbornly refuses to heed the warning from the Supreme Court that if he commits the same infraction, he will be punished more severely," Calida said.
"We will see him in court," he added.
On April 24, Sabio filed before the ICC, a criminal complaint against Duterte and 11 other government officials, including Calida, for crimes against humanity in a nationwide illegal drugs crackdown.
Aside from Duterte and Calida also included in the communication filed by Sabio are: Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, former Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno, Police Superintendent Edilberto Leonardo; Senior Police Officer 4 Sanson Buenaventura, Police Superintendent Royina Garma, National Bureau of Investigation chief Dante Gierran; Senators Richard Gordon and Allan Peter Cayetano.
In his statement, Calida said there's no need for an ICC probe.
He also stressed that the ICC lacks jurisdiction to decide the issue.
"At this stage, based on the communication, the ICC has no jurisdiction to take cognizance of the case. The case will not progress beyond the filing of the communication as it is utterly bereft of merit," he said.
Calida further explained that "there is no State policy, express or implied, directing an attack against any civilian population or the sanctioning of extrajudicial killings on drug-related cases."
Sabio in his complaint asked the ICC to prosecute Duterte for the crimes he had committed over his alleged involvement the vigilante group Davao Death Squad when he was then mayor of Davao City.
The said crime against human rights has been continuing, said Sabio, since the president assumed office in June 2016.
Sabio, who also called the president a "mass murderer", has further asked the ICC to conduct an analysis on the situation of summary killings in the country brought about by Duterte's drug war.
Aside complaint filed before the ICC, the President is facing an impeachment complaint before the House of Representatives filed by Magdalo party-list Representative Gary Alejano in March.
Duterte is also a respondent in the writ of habeas data petition filed by detained Senator de Lima in the SC. The said petition seeks to stop the president from violating the senator's rights as a woman and obtaining private information about her life. (VoxPop Philippines)
