MANILA – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday reiterated the Philippine government’s refusal to collaborate with any International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation concerning human rights violations within the country.
Marcos made this declaration following the findings of a survey conducted by OCTA Research, which revealed that 55 percent of Filipinos supported cooperating with the ICC’s inquiry into purported abuses during the drug war under former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“It opens Pandora’s box because it’s still those questions of jurisdiction and sovereignty that I haven’t yet seen a sufficient answer for. Until then, I do not recognize their jurisdiction in the Philippines,” Marcos said on the sidelines of the 16th Ani ng Dangal at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila.
“That seems to be the only logical conclusion that you can come to in that situation,” he added.
In March 2019, the Philippines, under Duterte’s directive, withdrew from the Rome Statute due to concerns about the ICC’s perceived interference in the nation’s internal matters.
“It’s not about the evidence; it’s about the jurisdiction of the ICC in the Philippines. They can produce as much evidence as they want, but they cannot act upon it in the Philippines. That’s the point,” Marcos said, adding the Philippines would remain “an open country” to ICC representatives so long as they do it “as ordinary people” and not as investigators.
Earlier, Marcos instructed national agencies and their leaders not to entertain any inquiries from the ICC.
