President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said the country will now “disengage” with the International Criminal Court (ICC) as it continues to pursue its probe on the killings in the Duterte administration’s war against illegal drugs.
“And so at this point, we essentially are disengaging from any contact, from any communication I guess with the ICC,” Marcos said during the Pag-IBIG Fund Chairman’s Report at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City last Tues.
He made the statement when asked about his position on the decision of the ICC appeals chamber to junk the country’s request for the suspension on the investigations the local drug-related killings.
The chamber cited the country failed to present a “persuasive reason” on why the probe should be deferred.
Last month, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan sought the resumption of the probe, which prompted the government to file its appeal before the ICC appeals chamber.
Following the said decision from the appeals chamber, Marcos said the country already lost any recourse before the ICC.
“We don’t have a next move. That is the extent of our involvement with the ICC. That ends all our involvement with the ICC since we can no longer file another appeal,” Marcos said.
Thus, he said, the government will now just maintain its position not to cooperate with the ICC after the country withdraws from its jurisdiction in 2019.
“We ended up with the same position that we started with and that is we cannot cooperate with the ICC considering the very serious questions about their jurisdiction and about the – what we consider to be interference and practically attacks on the sovereignty of the Republic,” Marcos said.