MANILA – There has yet to be any discussion regarding the Philippines’ return to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
According to Undersecretary Claire Castro of the Presidential Communications Office, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. remains firm with his stand of not returning to ICC.
“There’s no discussion on that. We’ll cross the bridge when we get there. Wala pa po as of now,” Castro said in a media briefing at the Malacañang Palace on Wednesday.
Bataan 1st District’s Cong. Geraldine Roman said on Tuesday that the next logical step that the Philippines should take after the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte is to rejoin the ICC.
Roman said it is her view that the Philippines rejoins the ICC to show that the country respects human rights and obeys international laws.
“We left the ICC unilaterally, I think it’s about time that we return to the ICC and show the whole world that this country respects our law and international law,” Roman said.
She added: “There is nothing wrong with tha,t my fellow Filipinos. The law is the only protection that people have against abuses, even us in positions of power need it. This is the only assurance that our courts have bases to give us justice if we are aggrieved by anyone.”
The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, in 2019 after The Hague-based tribunal began a probe into Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
President Marcos has previously said several times that he has no plans to return to ICC and will not recognize their jurisdiction in the Philippines./PN
