Lawmaker echoes EU official’s call for PH to rejoin ICC

Photo from the House of Representatives media bureau

A House lawmaker has echoed the recent call of the European Union (EU) for the Philippines to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the court called on witnesses to participate in the investigation of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

On Friday, Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro criticized Duterte’s 2019 decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute after ICC prosecutors said they would start investigating the drug war that, the government admitted, had resulted in more than 6,000 deaths.

The decision, Luistro said, “sent the wrong message to the international community” and “displayed the fragility of our democratic institutions.”

READ: DOJ: Decision to rejoin ICC up to Marcos

“At its core, the withdrawal from the ICC signified to our people that our government’s commitment to international treaties, more importantly to our domestic laws, is malleable enough and can be distorted to the whims of a select few,” she said.

Duterte unilaterally triggered the withdrawal from the statute that established the ICC, after it announced that it had opened a preliminary examination into allegations of crimes against humanity in the conduct of the drug war.

Since then, the withdrawal has been used as basis to argue that the court no longer had jurisdiction to investigate the drug war despite a Supreme Court ruling saying the Philippines still had obligations to do so.

Commitment to int’l law

“[Rejoining the ICC] would reaffirm the country’s commitment to international norms and strengthen its legal framework in holding perpetrators of grave crimes accountable, that regardless of their status, economic standing, or power, no one is above the law,” Luistro said.

“It is imperative for the Philippines to take an unqualified position in its membership in the ICC, not to mention that these commitments are anchored on values that are parallel with that of the Philippines, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the 1987 Philippine Constitution,” she added.

Luistro’s call followed EU’s Asia-Pacific chief Niclas Kvarnström saying the Philippines was not excluded from the ICC’s legal jurisdiction and that it ought to reconsider its withdrawal.

President Marcos earlier stressed his administration would not cooperate with the ICC’s ongoing investigation, but it would also not actively get in the way, in what observers say signaled unwillingness to shield his predecessor.

The Department of Justice also said that should the ICC issue arrest warrants via Interpol, the country would be obliged to follow.