Sara: ICC meddling an ‘insult’
‘Let us not insult and disgrace our courts by showing the world that we believe that only foreigners have the ability to give justice to our country’
VP Sara Duterte
Vice President Sara Duterte on Thursday urged lawmakers to respect the position of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to not cooperate in the investigation by the International Criminal Court into alleged drug-related state killings during the previous administration.
Duterte, a daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, issued the call amid joint meetings being convened in the House of Representatives regarding the ICC's jurisdiction over the Philippines or lack thereof.
Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., chair of the House Human Rights Commission, has filed a resolution asking the relevant Philippine government agencies to cooperate with the ICC.
The elder Duterte is seen as the target of the ICC investigation into the thousands of alleged drug-related killings during his 2016-2022 presidency and, before that, the purported killings by the Davao death squad when he was mayor of the city in Mindanao.
The Vice President reminded lawmakers of the words President Marcos uttered less than half a year ago: "Any probe conducted by the ICC would be an intrusion into our internal matters and a threat to our sovereignty."
"We are done talking with the ICC. Like we have been saying from the beginning, we will not cooperate with them in any way, shape, or form," Marcos had said.
Duterte pointed out that, given the clear stand of the President, the House should respect his position as the "chief architect" of the country's foreign policy.
The President, she said, is of the position that the ICC ceased to have jurisdiction over the Philippines upon the effectivity of the country's withdrawal from the Rome Statute on 17 March 2019.
"To allow ICC prosecutors to investigate alleged crimes that are now under the exclusive jurisdiction of our prosecutors and our courts is not only patently unconstitutional but effectively belittles and degrades our legal institutions," Duterte said.
"Let us not insult and disgrace our courts by showing the world that we believe that only foreigners have the ability to give justice to our country," she added.