Solicitor General Menardo I. Guevarra said on Thursday, Nov. 23, the resolution filed by Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. is contrary to the government's stance that refuses cooperation with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation on the alleged abuses committed during the illegal drugs operations of then President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
“Such resolution, if adopted, runs counter to the position of the Republic, repeatedly declared by no less than the President, the head of state, that the Philippines has no legal duty to cooperate with the ICC on jurisdictional grounds, and that any such unwanted interference in our affairs by the ICC will encroach upon the sovereignty of our country,” Guevarra said.
Abante, chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights of the House of Representatives, recently filed a resolution that urged relevant government agencies to cooperate with the investigation of the ICC.
Last July 18, the ICC Appeals Chamber issued a ruling which denied the Philippines' appeal that opposed the order to have the ICC prosecutor resume its investigation of the drugs operations.
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), which filed the appeal, had pointed out, among its arguments, the Philippines already withdrew as a state party of the Rome Statute that created the ICC and this took effect in 2019 long before the ICC prosecutor ordered an investigation in the drugs war.