The Philippines will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court because it has a “good” and working justice system, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Saturday.
Mr. Marcos’ remarks came after the ICC Prosecutor’s Office urged the ICC Appeals Chamber to dismiss the Philippine government’s application for the suspension of the reopening of the drug war probe involving his predecessor, former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Speaking to reporters in Fort del Pilar, Baguio City, Mr. Marcos said the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines, which he emphasized is a “sovereign nation.”
“My position has not changed. I have stated it often, even before I took office as president, that there are many questions about (ICC’s) jurisdiction, and what we in the Philippines regard as an intrusion into our internal matters and a threat to our sovereignty,” he said.
“I do not see what their jurisdiction is. I feel that we have in our police and our judiciary a good system. We do not need assistance from any outside entity.”
“The Philippines is a sovereign nation and we are not colonies anymoreof this former imperialist. So that is not something that we consider to be a legitimate judgment. So until those questions of jurisdiction and the effects on the sovereignty of the Republic are sufficiently answered, I cannot cooperate with them,” the President added.
Earlier this week, Senior Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led her fellow Pampanga legislators and 15 other congressmen in urging the 19th Congress to rally behind Duterte.
Arroyo, a former President, led 19 legislators in filing House Resolution 780, which called on the House of Representatives to declare “unequivocal defense of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.”
HR 780 emphasized that Duterte’s “remarkable accomplishments brought about by his relentless campaign against illegal drugs, insurgency, separatism and terrorism, corruption in government and criminality” made the life of Filipinos “better, comfortable and peaceful.”
It likewise cited the need for immediate action to curb the country’s serious and rampant illegal drug situation at the time when Duterte took office, as the drug problem was becoming an “existential threat to the country’s social fabric.”
In March 2018, Duterte ordered the termination of the Rome Statute that created the ICC after former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda continued with the preliminary examination.
The Philippines formally cut ties with the ICC on March 17, 2019, exactly a year after the revocation of the Rome Statute.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan suspended in November 2021 its investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity attributed to Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign upon the request of the Philippine government.
On Jan. 26, the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) decided to authorize Khan to continue the ICC’s probe into the drug-related deaths in the Philippines as it was “not satisfied” that government is conducting relevant investigations “that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations on the basis of the complementarity principle.”
The Department of Justice on Jan. 26 appealed to the ICC to let the Philippines carry out its own investigation and respect the country’s sovereignty and judicial systems.
In its February 16, 2023 response to the Philippine appeal, the Prosecutor’s Office said suspending the drug war probe was unnecessary because Manila failed to show that restarting the probe would create an irreversible situation that would be very difficult to correct, or that could potentially defeat the purpose of the appeal.
“No such grounds for granting suspensive effect exist,” the office wrote in its response. “While the Appeals Chamber decides on the merits of the appeal, the Philippines can continue with its investigations and domestic proceedings irrespective of the ongoing Prosecution’s investigation.”