Responding to allegations that the government’s assistance to Interpol violated Philippine sovereignty, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. maintained that it did not.
"No. Why? Because we are consistent. We are not cooperating with the ICC investigation," Marcos told reporters during a late-night press conference at Malacañang.
Earlier, Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, issued a statement calling her father’s arrest a "blatant affront to our sovereignty and an insult to every Filipino who believes in our nation’s independence."
Marcos noted that the government has had no official contact with the International Criminal Court (ICC) since the Philippines withdrew from the international tribunal in 2019.
“We don’t have any contact with them. Not on an official level. We didn’t help them in any way,” he said.
He clarified that Duterte’s arrest was carried out in compliance with the country’s commitments to Interpol.
"The arrest that we did today was in compliance with our commitments to Interpol. It just so happened that that came from ICC. But it's not because it came from ICC, it's because it came from Interpol,” he said.