Palace insists Philippines won’t cooperate with ICC on drug war inquiry

Malacañang on Thursday insisted that the Philippines will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) pending a decision that could pave the way for a full-blown investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

“When we withdrew our membership from the Rome Statute, we also withdrew from the obligation to cooperate so we are under no obligation to cooperate with the ICC,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a news conference, referring to the treaty that created the ICC.

ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda recently said there was a basis to believe that crimes against humanity were committed in the course of the anti-narcotics campaign.

Her office said she will decide whether to seek authorization from the court to open an investigation within the first half of 2021.

Last year, then-Palace spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Philippines was “not bound” by the rules of the ICC in light of the country’s withdrawal from The Hague-based tribunal.

Bensouda, however, said the court retains jurisdiction over alleged crimes that have occurred on Philippine territory during the period when it was a state party to the Rome Statute from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019.

She also said the exercise of the court’s jurisdiction is “not subject to any time limit.”

The Palace maintained that the domestic mechanisms are in place to prosecute any alleged crime against humanity in the Philippines.

Roque said an inter-agency panel led by the Department of Justice is looking into thousands of police anti-illegal drug operations that resulted in deaths.

“What's clear is that [Justice] Secretary [Menardo] Guevarra even created an inter-agency committee to look into these alleged cases of extralegal killings, proving that we are discharging our obligation to investigate and prosecute,” he said.

On Wednesday, Duterte said he would go to prison over the drug war if it was his destiny.—LDF, GMA News