Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on March 28 that he’s decided to cut ties with the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the court denied the government’s appeal to cease a probe into his predecessor’s brutal war on drugs.
“[The Philippines] cannot cooperate with the ICC, considering the very serious questions about their jurisdiction and about what we consider to be interference and practically attacks on the sovereignty of the republic.”
The court said the government failed to explain how its claim of a lack of jurisdiction or a legal basis for resuming the probe would “defeat its very purpose and create an irreversible situation that could not be corrected.”
It also didn’t specify the “far-reaching and inimical consequences” the probe will have on suspects, witnesses, and victims, the court stated.
Marcos said that his government will take no further action regarding the appeal.
“We don’t have a next move. That is the extent of our involvement with the ICC. That ends all our involvement with the ICC because we can no longer appeal,” he said.
“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.”
‘Step Toward Justice’
Carlos Conde, a senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), hailed the ICC’s decision to resume its probe as “a step toward justice for the thousands of victims of Duterte’s murderous drug war.”The ICC began a full investigation into the drug war campaign in September 2021, but it was suspended two months later after the Philippines pledged to undertake its own investigation. In June 2022, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan called for the ICC probe to restart.
The Philippines officially withdrew from the ICC on March 17, 2019, after the court began preliminary investigations into Duterte’s drug war for suspected human rights abuses.
“No evidence thus far shows that Duterte planned or ordered specific extrajudicial killings,“ it stated. ”But Duterte’s repeated calls for killings as part of his anti-drug campaign could constitute acts instigating law enforcement to commit the crime of murder.”