Senator Ronald dela Rosa on Wednesday said Filipinos who supported the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs did not love their country and were willing to surrender Philippine sovereignty to foreigners.
Dela Rosa, who led the bloody war on drugs when he served as Duterte’s national police chief from 2016 to 2018, has been protesting loudly following unverified reports that an ICC team has been in the country and that it had obtained enough evidence to file charges against him and Duterte.
“I don’t know why these bleeding hearts really want to surrender our sovereignty to foreign bodies. They don’t love their country. They want our courts to be disrespected,” Dela Rosa said in Filipino in an interview on ANC Headstart.
The senator insisted that local courts are functioning and can prosecute those who are accused of violating human rights during the drug war—though neither he nor Duterte has been charged for the drug war in any Philippine court.
Dela Rosa added that pro-ICC Filipinos should be made to sing the national anthem “1,000 times” to signify their allegiance to the country.
The former police chief said he was afraid of being locked up because it would keep him from seeing his grandchildren.
“I’m scared to be detained because I will be far from my grandchildren. That’s my fear. I love my grandchildren very much and yet, they will grow up without a grandfather… How will I bring them to the Hague?” Dela Rosa said.
While he has insisted that any investigation in the Philippines by the ICC would be illegal, he also dared the investigators to look for evidence.
He praised President Marcos for his statement on protecting Philippine sovereignty.
“The President is a man of few words. He is true to his word,” he said.
But still, he challenged the President and Malacanang to make their official stand publicly to end all speculation.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Wednesday said the ICC has yet to communicate with the agency regarding its investigation of the country’s drug war.
In a Palace briefing, DILG Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. said he has no idea about the ICC’s probe.
“As far as our office is concerned, the DILG is, I have no knowledge about this, [and] there is no communication with them, nothing at all,” Abalos said.
Abalos also reaffirmed the agency’s alignment with President Marcos’ stance of non-cooperation with the ICC.
“We will follow the lead of the President,” Abalos said.
President Marcos, emphasizing his refusal to acknowledge the ICC’s jurisdiction, said he deems it a potential threat to the nation’s sovereignty.
He has directed government agencies, including police personnel and local governments, not to cooperate with the ICC representatives.
In the event of an encounter with an ICC representative, Abalos said he would communicate the Philippines’ commitment to transparency.
He emphasized that, as a democratic nation, the Philippines adheres to all laws.
The ICC, in January 2023, authorized the reopening of the inquiry into the war on drugs, which had been suspended in November 2021.
The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019 at the instigation of President Duterte, who was angered by the investigation into his drug war.
Senator Christopher Go, a staunch ally of the former president, welcomed President Marcos’s latest pronouncement on the ICC.
“The Philippines has a strong, independent judicial system. It is our belief that only Philippine courts, under Philippine laws, are qualified to adjudicate matters concerning our nation and its people,” Go said.
The President further clarified that while ICC investigators are permitted to visit the Philippines, they would be under close surveillance, especially regarding any attempts to interact with government agencies.
“We will not assist them in any way. We are watching them to ensure they do not engage with any government agencies,” President Marcos said.
Also on Wednesday, Vice President Sara Duterte said she has yet to receive any document indicating that she’s a respondent in the ICC investigation into her father’s drug war.
She said, however, that here lawyers are prepared in case she gets involved in the investigation.