Senator Francis Tolentino said Tuesday, Aug. 2 that he is in full support of the decision of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. not to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC).
‘’It is reflective of the two cornerstones of our sovereignty as a State: independent foreign policy and national security. The right to be an equal member in the comity of nations is reflective of our sovereignty as a nation,’’ Tolentino said.
He said Philippine courts should have the primacy in dispensing justice and this is even recognized by the ICC's own “complementarity principle".
‘’We thus associate ourselves with other nations like the United States, India and China in refusing to annex the Rome Statute's sovereignty-diluting mechanisms which is violative of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,’’ he stressed.
The Philippines under the Duterte administration withdrew from the ICC in March, 2018.