MANILA - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has ordered government agencies not to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its investigation into the deadly war on drugs during the administration of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
“I do not recognise the jurisdiction of ICC in the Philippines. I consider it as a threat to our sovereignty,” Marcos told reporters on Tuesday.
His comment came days after Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said ICC investigators would not be barred from the country as long as they follow domestic legal procedures.
“The Philippine government will not lift a finger to help any investigation that the ICC conducts,” said Marcos, the successor of Duterte whose flagship anti-narcotics campaign left thousands of suspected drug dealers or users dead under dubious circumstances.
The Philippines has not been a member of the ICC since March 2019 after Duterte, who was in power between June 2016 and June 2022, initiated its withdrawal a year earlier.
But the ICC insists it retains jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Philippines while it was a member from November 2011.
Marcos said any government agency contacted by the ICC should not provide any reply.
The ICC Office of the Prosecutor said on Monday that it could not confirm or deny whether its investigators had already visited the Philippines to gather evidence of the alleged extrajudicial killings of the suspected drug dealers or users, in order to protect the confidentiality of their work.
But the office “will seek to engage and establish a dialogue with all relevant stakeholders, including the Philippine government and civil society” during its probe, it said in an email to Kyodo News.
The Hague-based court authorised the office of the prosecutor last year to proceed with its investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in connection with the drug war killings.
Marcos said last year that the anti-narcotics campaign had “taken on a new face” with a focus on rehabilitation and education, but activists said at the time that people were still being killed illegally.
