By: Andrea Eleanor Cabaron
President Marcos Jr. questions proposals to bring the Philippines back into the ICC system. Photo courtesy of Inquirer Philippines.
President Marcos Jr. says that the proposals for the country to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC) is now ‘under study’.
The president made the remark in response to inquiries from the media over House resolutions requesting that the government assist the ICC in its probe of the anti-drug campaign that former President Rodrigo Duterte began in 2016 and that President Marcos carried out thereafter.
"Should we return under the fold of the ICC? So that is again under study. So we’ll just keep looking at it and see what our options are," Marcos told reporters.
During a media interview, Marcos commented on the involvement of government agencies in assisting the ICC’s investigation on the previous president’s war on drugs.
“That is not unusual. They are just expressing or manifesting the sense of the House that perhaps it’s time to allow or to cooperate with the ICC investigation.” says Marcos.
Earlier Stand and Oppositions
The ICC initiated a formal investigation in September 2021, but it was put on hold two months later when Manila announced it was re-examining several hundred incidents of narcotics operations that resulted in killings at the hands of vigilantes, hitmen, and police.
The most recent official statistics given by the Philippines shows that over 200,000 anti-drug operations have resulted in at least 6,181 deaths. Prosecutors for the ICC calculate that between 12,000 and 30,000 people have died.
Incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stated that the ICC had "no jurisdiction" in the Philippines and that the inquiry posed a "threat to our sovereignty," indicating the Marcos administration's rejection of the probe.
Although the Philippines withdrew from the Statute on March 17, 2019, the ICC stated that the court "retains jurisdiction with respect to alleged crimes that occurred on the territory of the Philippines while it was a State Party, from 1 November 2011 up to and including 16 March 2019."
Meanwhile, Vice President Sara Duterte criticized the chamber's action in a statement on Thursday, urging the House "not to insult and embarrass our courts" by allowing ICC investigators into the nation on a matter already being handled by the Philippine legal system. Her statement echoed the position taken by the government both under her father's administration and the current one.
The Vice President added that the House ought to honor President Marcos's previous assertion that the Philippines had finished its proceedings with the ICC.