PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said Tuesday, March 28, that the country will “essentially disengage” from the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the latter rejected the Philippines’ bid to suspend the investigation on the drug war of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“At this point, we essentially are disengaging from any contact, from any communication, I guess, with the ICC... We don’t have a next move. That is the extent of our involvement with the ICC,” Marcos said in an interview with reporters.
“We have no longer any recourse when it comes to the ICC. We have not been involved with the actual action. Merely as a comment, we would comment, and the appeal is part of a comment... But we have not appeared as a party in the ICC because we do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC,” he added.
Marcos maintained anew that the country has its own working judicial system and ICC’s probe would mean an intrusion to its sovereignty.
The Philippine government, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), asked the ICC to suspend and reverse the ruling authorizing the resumption of the investigation by the ICC prosecutor over the alleged crime against humanity committed in the country amid Duterte’s crackdown on illegal drugs that resulted in the death of over 6,000 individuals in a span of six years.
The ICC Appeals Chamber said the Philippines did not provide reasons to support the request “nor has it demonstrated that the implementation of the Impugned Decision would create an irreversible situation or one that would be difficult to correct.”
The National Government earlier said that it will not cooperate with the probe. (SunStar Philippines)