Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday, November 12, urged President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to allow the Philippines to return to the fold of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“The President can correct a monumental mistake by letting the Philippines rejoin as a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC),” Hontiveros said.

“In the first place, the withdrawal from the ICC was prompted only by the selfish interests of former President (Rodrigo) Duterte,” she pointed out.

Hontiveros lamented that Duterte cancelled the country’s membership from the ICC to avoid the tribunal’s scrutiny on his brutal drug war campaign.

“Para isalba ang sarili, pinahamak niya ang buong bansa at inalis sa mga Pilipino ang napakahalagang mekanismo ng katarungan (To save himself, he put the entire country at risk and deprived Filipinos of the very important mechanism of justice),” the senator stressed.

In the first place, Duterte has also admitted that he is responsible for the drug war, its consequences, including the liabilities of the police that implemented the drug war.

“Inamin ni Duterte sa Senado na siya ang responsable sa madugong War on Drugs, kung saan maraming mahirap at kabataan ang napatay, pero abswelto ang mga kriminal na sagot ng pangulo (Duterte admitted in the Senate that he was responsible for the bloody war on drugs, where many poor people and young people were killed, but the criminals were acquitted by the President),” she lamented.

“Why should we abandon our international commitments just so Duterte can avoid accountability for his crimes?” she stressed.

“Kung talagang may pagpapahalaga si Presidente Marcos sa hustisya at rule of law, sana ay itama niya ang mali ni Duterte at ibalik ang bansa sa ICC (If President Marcos really values ​​justice and the rule of law, I hope he will correct Duterte's mistake and return the country to the ICC),” she said.

Hontiveros echoed Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III’s proposal for the Marcos government to rejoin the ICC as doing so would serve as an "insurance policy" against potential abuses of leaders and in the event the justice system fails.

“Let us rejoin the ICC. We should treat this as our 'insurance policy' just in case 'our system' fails us and we get to elect an abusive, tyrannical, heartless leader, and our justice system fails us too,” Pimentel had said.