President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. declared that the Philippines has no intention in rejoining the International Criminal Court (ICC).

 “The Philippines has no intention of rejoining the ICC,” Marcos said in a press briefing in Pasig City on Monday, Aug. 1.

The Philippines’ membership in the international tribunal was canceled in 2018 by then president Rodrigo Duterte.

The President met with Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, Presidential Lega Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, and lawyer Harry Roque on July 28 to discuss the administration’s move on the ICC’s investigation on the Philippines.

Malacañang has been mum about the meeting since then until Monday.

According to Marcos, they discussed whether or not to respond to the invitation of the Hague-based ICC to the Philippines to provide observations on the ICC’s plan to reopen the probe on the previous administration’s war on drugs.

“E, sinasabi naman namin e, may imbestigasyon naman dito at patuloy rin naman ang imbestigasyon, bakit magkakaroon ng ganon (What we were saying is that there is already an investigation here and it’s ongoing, why do we still need to have it),” Marcos said referring on the reopening of the investigation on the deadly drug war.

“Anyway para alam natin ang gagwin natin (so we know what we must do), if we will respond, if we will not respond, kung sakali na sasagot tayo ano ang magiging sagot natin, or possible din hindi natin papansin dahil hindi naman tayo sumasailalim sa kanila (if we respond, what will be our response, or is it possible to dismiss it as we are not actually under them),” Marcos added.

The Chief Executive also bared that he ordered the state lawyers, including Roque, whom he tapped to join the meeting as he is “involved and recognized by the ICC,” to think it over and weigh the government’s action on this.

He recognized that the ICC “is a very different kind of a court”, so he directed his administration’s top lawyers to study it in order for the ICC to not misinterpret the country’s action over the matter.

The Philippines is given until Sept. 8, 2022 to respond to the ICC’s invitation to provide observations on the planned reopening of the investigation.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Betheena Unite

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