President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the dismissal of the third and final drug case against former Senator Leila de Lima shows that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has no business meddling in the country’s judicial system.
“This is something we should show the ICC,” Marcos said. “Look, our judiciary is working properly, all our investigative services are working properly, and here it is, former Senator De Lima has been acquitted.”
“What further comment can there be? She went through the judicial process and she was acquitted,” said the President in a media interview.
Branch 206 of the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court this week dismissed the last remaining drug-related case filed against De Lima in 2017 during the Duterte administration.
As Justice secretary, De Lima was alleged to have amassed millions of pesos in exchange for allowing drug lords to operate their illicit trade remotely while detained at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
The Department of Justice has control over the Bureau of Corrections which, in turn, manages the country’s penal system under which the NBP is the largest penitentiary in terms of population.
De Lima, who has repeatedly called on the ICC to investigate the drug-related killings during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, has maintained that the drug charges against her were politically motivated.
Critics of Duterte said that as many as 20,000 people were killed, including by summary execution, from 2016 until the so-called “Operation Tokhang” tapered off near the end of his administration in 2022.
Following her acquittal, De Lima on Monday said she would help The Hague-based ICC in its investigation of the killings.
Official government data pegged the number of people killed during the anti-drug campaign at about 6,000. Authorities said the deaths arose from legitimate law enforcement operations such as buy-bust and sting operations.
Unchanged
Marcos reiterated his stance that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines as repeatedly enunciated by government officials like Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
Despite his relationship with Duterte going south, culminating in the resignation of Vice President Sara Duterte as Education secretary, Marcos maintained his stance against the perceived ICC meddling.
“I don’t see what one thing has to do with the other. She (De Lima) has said that she would like to help the ICC, but that’s between her and the ICC. We still stay with our position that the ICC has no jurisdiction in the Philippines,” Marcos said.
“We have a working police force, we have a working judiciary and do not require any assistance in that regard,” he added.
Duterte himself initiated the process to withdraw the country’s recognition of the ICC in 2018 after it announced that it was opening a preliminary examination into allegations of crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the Duterte administration.
Then President Duterte cited what he perceived as baseless and outrageous attacks against himself and his administration, saying the ICC was being used as a political tool against him.
Notified
In March of 2018, the Philippines officially notified the United Nations of its decision to withdraw from the ICC. But the ICC maintained that under the Rome Statute that created it the withdrawal would become effective one year after the notification was received by the UN secretary-general.
Despite the withdrawal, the ICC maintained that it retained jurisdiction over the Philippines for the alleged crimes committed while it was a member and during the period of withdrawal.
This meant the ICC could investigate and prosecute crimes committed during Duterte’s presidency up to 16 March 2019.
Duterte argued that the decision to withdraw from the ICC was a matter of sovereignty and a response to what he saw as undue interference and politicization by the tribunal.