‘If ICC prosecutor Karim Khan decides to pursue the cases of human rights violations, he will find little — if grudging — cooperation from the government but international and diplomatic protocols will have to be observed even by this pro-Duterte administration.’
THE insistence of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to begin a formal investigation into the controversial war on drugs by former President Rodrigo Duterte and the concomitant issue of the Philippines’ membership in the ICC are matters that cannot be swept under the rug by the Bongbong Marcos administration, or any government for that matter.
The ICC has given the Philippines until September 8 this year to respond to its suggestion of a probe to be conducted soon about alleged drug-enforcement crimes committed by either former President Rodrigo Duterte or former Philippine National Police Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, now a senator.
President Marcos clarified that he just gave orders to his government’s legal team to look into the ICC situation so the country would know how to respond. At the outset, however, the Chief Executive emphasized that “the Philippines has no intention of rejoining the International Criminal Court” from which it severed membership in 2019.
Marcos met with top legal advisers, including Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, and former Duterte spokesman Harry Roque last week to take up the ICC issue.
The country’s withdrawal from the ICC took effect on March 17, 2019, exactly a year after Duterte revoked the Philippines’ ratification of the Rome Statute that created the court. The pullout was triggered by the ICC’s declaration that it wanted to investigate the allegations of crimes against humanity in the Philippines, particularly the extrajudicial killings that occurred under Duterte’s watch.
Members of the Senate, which has the sole power to ratify the nation’s treaties with foreign countries and institutions, are divided on the question of ICC membership. Critics like Sen. Koko Pimentel urged for a return to ICC, a complete reversal of his position in the early Duterte administration when he was Senate president and a close Palace ally.
Senators Dela Rosa and Francis Tolentino support BBM’s position. Tolentino, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said Marcos’ decision not to rejoin the ICC is “reflective of the two cornerstones of our sovereignty as a State: independent foreign policy and national security. Our courts should have the primacy in dispensing justice and this is even recognized by the ICC’s own ‘complementarity principle.’ We thus associate ourselves with other nations like the US, India and China in refusing to annex the Rome Statute’s sovereignty-diluting mechanisms which are violative of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.”
Senator Tolentino’s citing the refusal of the United States, China, India, and many African nations to join the ICC bolsters the soundness of Marcos’ decision, his first major one in the field of foreign relations.
If ICC prosecutor Karim Khan decides to pursue the cases of human rights violations, he will find little — if grudging — cooperation from the government but international and diplomatic protocols will have to be observed even by this pro-Duterte administration.
