The Philippines will not comply if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues a warrant of arrest against anyone for deaths arising from former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Monday.
Instead, Remulla said the ICC should allow the Philippines to run after the persons against whom the tribunal has evidence of having committed crimes during the anti-drug operations.
“As long as they have evidence against these persons that they want to run after, then they should give them to us so that we will be the ones to prosecute those who committed crimes in our country,” Remulla said in a media briefing.
He bristled at the possibility of the ICC investigators coming into the country.
“No. They won’t do anything here. They have nothing to do here. What are they going to do? Invade us? Do they want to come here just like a colonizer?” he said.
“We do not want other countries interfering with the justice system in the Republic of the Philippines. We are not a colony. We are also not a territory of other countries. It’s enough. We are a free country with our own system,” Remulla said.
The ICC’s Appeals Chamber is set to resolve on July 18 the appeal of the Philippines to stop the order of ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I, which granted the request of the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor to resume its investigation of human rights abuses during Duterte’s war on drugs.
Remulla reiterated his earlier warning that should the ICC’s Appeals Chamber deny the Philippines’ plea, “the ICC is not welcome in the Philippines.”
“We are very hospitable people but if they interfere with us, we will not allow it because we have our own justice system, our own tradition, our own law enforcement, our own prosecution, our own courts that outsiders can’t interfere with or set aside,” Remulla said.
“‘They should respect our sovereignty,” he said.
Remulla said the ICC has allowed itself to be used by those with a political agenda in the Philippines.
“The ICC is for countries with no prevailing justice system and it is there they are needed,” he said.
“It is not to interfere in the established system of the Republic of the Philippines,” he added.
Earlier, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, who was Justice secretary during the Duterte administration, said the country has no more available appeal if the ICC decides to deny Manila’s plea to stop its investigation of the killings arising from Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.
“In case our appeal is denied, the ICC prosecutor will be authorized to resume his investigation into the Philippine situation. There is no further appeal available to the Philippine government,” Guevarra told the Manila Standard on Sunday.
“Depending on the evidence he may be able to gather, the ICC prosecutor may seek the issuance of summonses or warrants of arrest against certain individuals,” Guevarra added.
As a judicial institution, the ICC does not have its own police force or enforcement body.
On its website, the ICC said it “relies on the cooperation of countries worldwide for support, particularly for making arrests, transferring arrested persons to the ICC detention center in The
Hague, freezing suspects’ assets, and enforcing sentences.”
Thus far, there have been 31 cases before the ICC, and ICC judges have issued 40 arrest warrants, including one against Russian President Vladimir Putin in March for his part in the war in Ukraine.
With the cooperation of member-states, 21 people have been detained in the ICC detention center while 16 remained at large. Charges have been dropped against five people due to their deaths, the ICC said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier maintained that the government will not cooperate with the international body’s investigation.
“We cannot cooperate with the ICC considering the very serious questions about their jurisdiction and about what we consider to be interference and practically attacks on the sovereignty of the republic,” Mr. Marcos said in March.
The ICC Appeals Chamber is expected to make its decision on July 18 on the government’s plea against the resumption of the probe on the killings linked to the drug war.
Guevarra said persons “who may be indicted will have to engage their own defense counsel.”
He said the Office of the Solicitor General “only represents the state.”
Duterte pulled the Philippines out of the Hague-based tribunal in 2019 after it began a preliminary probe into his drug war, followed by the launch of a formal inquiry later that year.
Duterte has since continuously dismissed the ICC investigation.
Under the Duterte administration’s much-condemned drug war, at least 6,200 suspects were killed in police operations based on government records. But human rights groups put the actual death toll to be anywhere from 12,000 to 30,000.