MANILA (AFP) – The Philippines said on Friday it intended to appeal an International Criminal Court (ICC)decision to reopen an inquiry into Manila’s brutal anti-drug campaign, which left thousands dead.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte, who initiated the drug war, pulled the Philippines out of the ICC in 2019, a year after the Hague-based tribunal began a preliminary probe into the crackdown.
The ICC launched a formal inquiry in September 2021, only to suspend it two months later after Manila said it was re-examining several hundred cases of drug operations that led to deaths at the hands of police, hitmen and vigilantes. The ICC prosecutor later asked to reopen the inquiry in June 2022. Announcing the probe’s resumption on Thursday, the ICC said its pre-trial chamber was “not satisfied that the Philippines is undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the court’s investigations”.
The chief lawyer for current Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos’ government Menardo Guevarra, told AFP: “It is our intention to exhaust our legal remedies, more particularly elevating the matter to the ICC appeals chamber.”
Solicitor General Guevarra and Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla both said Manila, instead of the ICC, should have jurisdiction over alleged drug war crimes.
“They are insulting us,” Remulla told reporters. “I will not stand for any of these antics that will tend to question our sovereignty, our status as a sovereign country.”
Philippine police operations chief Major-General Valeriano de Leon vowed the anti-drug crackdown would continue, calling Duterte an “inspiration”.
Former presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement that Duterte “would never subject himself under the legal jurisdiction of any foreign body because it is an insult to the competence and impartiality of our functioning criminal justice system”.
However, Roque added: “He would humbly submit to the prosecution and judgement of any local court.”
