House of Representatives (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

The House quad-committee (quad-comm) will still keep its hands off the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the case of crimes against humanity involving former president Rodrigo Duterte.

This was confirmed on Monday, March 17, by Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, even as The Hague-based court launched the trial on Duterte recently.

“We're not cooperating, we're not coordinating, and we're not giving any information that was elicited from the quad-comm hearings. Because we (Philippines) are not a member of the ICC, therefore we're not obliged," said Barbers, overall chairman of the special four-way panel.

"If they can access the records in the social media platforms, let them do it that way. But asking the participation of the quas, I'm sorry, but we cannot because we're not a member of the ICC,” he noted.

Since August 2024, the quad-comm had carried out 13 marathon hearings Duterte's bloody war on drugs and purportedly related issues like Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) and money laundering.

It can be argued that the quad-comm single-handedly rekindled public interest on the ex-president's supposed accountability on the carnage during his drug war. 

That is, until the International Police (Interpol) swooped in with the ICC's arrest warrant for Duterte last March 11.

Quad-comm officials previously said that they can't be forced to submit transcripts, affidavits, and other pieces of evidence to the ICC, which had been looking into the drug war deaths since 2017.

However, videos of the hearings can easily be found on online platforms like YouTube and Facebook.