By Liezelle Soriano
MANILA — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has indicated that the potential return of the Philippines to the International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently under consideration.
“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 stated.
This was Marcos’s response to questions regarding the request of House members for the government to cooperate with the ICC’s investigation into the war on drugs.
“They (lawmakers) are just expressing or manifesting the sense of the House that perhaps it is time to allow or to cooperate with the ICC investigations,” Marcos explained.
Three years prior to the resumption of the drug war investigation, the Philippines withdrew from the International Criminal Court in 2019.
“If you are talking about the jurisdiction of the ICC, especially since we withdrew from the Rome Statute a few years back, that brings into question whether or not this is actually possible,” Marcos remarked.
However, he emphasized that foreign entities have no right to decide who should be investigated or arrested.
(ai/mnm)
