If it were up to him, International Criminal Court officials who will try to enter the Philippines would be arrested, Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s chief legal adviser insisted the international tribunal has “no sovereign power over us.”
“They interfere so much in our internal affairs,” Enrile told media on the sidelines of the presentation of the Marcos administration’s economic roadmap on Monday.
On 27 January, the ICC authorized the resumption of its probe into the killings under former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
“We will not allow any of our officials to be investigated or tried by the International Criminal Court. I’m telling you as the lawyer of the President, I will not allow it. As far as I’m concerned, I will not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC,” Enrile added.
For Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, the ICC is “insulting” the Philippines, adding that the government is unwilling to cooperate with the probe.
Working justice system
Department of Justice spokesperson Mico Clavano, in a separate media conference, said the Philippines has a “working justice system” that continues to investigate the war on drugs.
“We can both protect our sovereignty and at the same time investigate and, if possible, convict those who violate the laws in the war on drugs,” Clavano added.
For his part, Philippine National Police Chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. called on the ICC to respect the country’s sovereignty and jurisdiction.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Azurin said the country’s police force was “not hiding anything” and the local judicial system has conducted an investigation into human rights violations and killings during the previous administration’s war on drugs.
“What we are asking is for ICC to give due respect to the judicial processes that we have in our country because we are a sovereign country. We have our own judicial proceedings,” Azurin said.
He added that the PNP was fully cooperating with the DoJ in investigating the cases of its personnel found liable for procedural lapses in anti-illegal drug operations.
“We are not hiding anything,” he said.
He urged the ICC to instead submit evidence should they find any, but reiterated that the Philippines’ judicial body must “do the process.”
Reaching out
“It’s a matter of reaching out — who are these people complaining to the ICC, so they can engage us. And we promise, the PNP will help to make sure that they will be served justice if that’s what they’re asking for,” he said, partly in the vernacular.
On 26 January, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC announced its decision to continue its probe into “the situation of the Republic of the Philippines.”
In a statement, the PTC said it was “not satisfied” that the Philippines was conducting relevant investigations “that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations on the basis of the complementarity principle.”
Marcos himself has yet to speak on the ICC’s latest decision, opting instead to communicate via the justice department.
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