While recognizing President Marcos as the chief architect of the country’s foreign policy, Vice President Sara Duterte is standing by her position of not allowing the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation into her father’s war on drugs.
(From right) Vice President Sara Duterte and Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla (Inday Sara Duterte Facebook page/MANILA BULLETIN)
Speaking to the media, Duterte said she will relay the legal basis to the Department of Justice (DOJ) why the government should not fully cooperate with ICC in its probe of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
“We should respect the position of the President being the chief architect of foreign policy. So iyon po lahat ang dapat na posisyon nating lahat (So that should be the position of everyone),” she said on Monday, Nov. 27.
But having said that, the Vice President made known of her plan to make an appeal to the DOJ, headed by Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
“Pero (But) we will continue to reach out to the Department of Justice regarding our position on this matter,” she said on Monday, Nov. 28.
“We will lay down the legal basis of our position with the DOJ,” the official added.
Duterte was reacting to Marcos’ earlier remark that rejoining ICC is under review after the House of Representatives tackled House Resolution 1477, which called on the Marcos administration “to extend their full cooperation to the ICC Prosecutor” in its investigation of any crimes committed under its jurisdiction.
The official said she "cannot speak for the President" when asked about his change of stance on the ICC probe.
"You need to ask the President on this matter," Duterte stated.
Former president Duterte withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2018 following the tribunal’s preliminary investigation into his administration’s bloody war on drugs.
The withdrawal became effective in 2019.
However, Article 127 of the Rome Statute said that a state party cannot be discharged of its obligations to the statute before the withdrawal date.
Even the Philippines’ own Supreme Court ruled that “withdrawing from the Rome Statute does not discharge a state party from obligations it has incurred as a member.
The previous administration’s war on drugs had reportedly killed over 6,000 people, with different international human rights organizations putting the actual number of deaths up to 12,000 to 35,000.