The entry points of illegal drugs in the country will be vigilantly monitored, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said following a meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently in Malacañang.

Remulla said the President instructed the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Justice, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and Philippine National Police to strengthen their collaboration in pursuit of the administration’s efforts to combat illegal drugs.

He said that following the President’s directive, the government has identified the main transit points of drugs.

“The number one control points that have to be addressed are the Manila International Container Port, Subic, and Phividec in Cagayan,” he said.

Remulla cited the plans of the administration for the “big guns” in illegal drugs and the use of cryptocurrency to hide transactions.

He said the main source of illegal drugs was the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.

In order to disrupt the drug trade in jails, he said the President had ordered the transfer of 200 high-value detainees from the NBP to a new maximum security facility.

Gov’t won’t cooperate

President Marcos, meanwhile, maintained the government will not cooperate with any investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on his predecessor’s war on drugs campaign.

However, Marcos said his administration won’t block the ICC probe should former president Rodrigo Duterte allow The Hague-based court to investigate him.

“Well, as the Executive Secretary, the former Chief Justice, said, if that’s what the former president wants, then we will not block the ICC. But we will not cooperate,” Marcos said in an interview after Duterte challenged the ICC to rush its inquiry into his anti-drug campaign.

Marcos stressed his administration will remain hands-off on Duterte’s issues with the ICC.

“But if he allows it, if he decides to talk to them or be investigated, it’s all up to him. We can’t decide about it,” he said in Filipino.

Marcos emphasized the government’s stand on the ICC’s intervention in the Philippine judicial system “has not changed.”

He noted that the DILG and the Philippine National Police were already investigating the previous administration’s anti-illegal drugs campaign.

The Department of Justice, he added, is already reexamining the statements and testimonies in connection with the extrajudicial killings and human rights violations during the implementation of Duterte’s drug war.

“But you know, all the testimony that was given yesterday really will be taken in and will be assessed to see what, in legal terms, what is the real meaning and consequence of some of the statements made by PRRD,” Marcos said.

“Now, if that will result in a case being filed here in the Philippines, we will just have to see. The DoJ will have to make that assessment,” he added.

Marcos likewise reiterated that the Philippines would not rejoin the ICC.

Duterte formally withdrew the Philippines’ membership from the ICC on 17 March 2019 — exactly a year after it revoked the Rome Statute that created the international tribunal.

The previous government had requested the ICC prosecutor defer to the Philippine government’s investigations and proceedings in a 10 November 2021 letter signed by Ambassador to The Netherlands Eduardo Malaya.