Marcos to enunciate ‘policy’ on calls for PH to rejoin ICC

MANILA – Malacañang awaits President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to personally declare his stance on opposition legislators’ calls for the Philippines to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Those comments, as in any comment that is in the exercise of freedom of speech are also duly noted. But we’ll wait for the formal policy to be articulated by the President,” Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said in a Palace press briefing.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, a member of the opposition, stated that the Philippines should rejoin the International Criminal Court, emphasizing that the greater our membership in groups with shared human rights ideals, the better.

Former senator Leila de Lima, who is currently detained, remarked that restoring the country’s membership in the ICC would improve the country’s image and “protect people from crimes against humanity committed by state forces.”

Former President Rodrigo Duterte directed the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute in March 2018 just weeks after former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced a preliminary examination was underway into the administration’s controversial crackdown on illegal drugs.

On March 17, 2019, the Philippines officially cut ties with the ICC, exactly a year after the Rome Statute’s revocation.

Duterte contended repeatedly that the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, stipulated that the ICC could only prosecute such accusations if the member-nation did not have a functioning judicial system or if the government refused to prosecute such offenses.

The ICC officially launched a probe into the government’s anti-narcotics campaign in September 2021.

However, in November of the same year, the government asked the ICC to postpone its probe because the government was already investigating the allegations.

Marcos previously stated that he would continue the Duterte administration’s drug war with the same vigor, but would place a greater emphasis on prevention by educating the youth about the dangers of narcotics and enhancing rehabilitation centers.

In January, he said he will allow members of the ICC to go to the country, but only as tourists and not as investigators.

The country, he said, already has a “functioning judiciary” and is capable of conducting investigations themselves.