ICC lacks jurisdiction to probe ‘war on drugs’ – Remulla
THE International Criminal Court (ICC) lacks jurisdiction over the past administration’s “war on drugs”, Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said.
“… in my opinion, they have no jurisdiction over our country when it comes to these things they want to investigate because we are not anymore a member of the ICC. If we are still part of the treaty, then we accede to the treaty, but we are not anymore part of the treaty, we have withdrawn from it,” Remulla said.
Remulla, an elected congressional representative before he was appointed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as Justice Department secretary, also stressed that the country has a functioning judicial system and “there’s no need for the ICC to conduct its own investigation.”
“We have withdrawn from the ICC. They say that they want to investigate crimes here in the country, but we have a functioning judicial system. It’s not perfect but it’s functioning, we are not a banana republic, so why are we, why should they want to go to the country? Unless the agenda is political, and we don’t want political agenda by people other than us. We do our politics in our own country, not foreigners,” Remulla said.
Last December, the ICC announced that it was suspending its investigation into the supposed atrocities committed during the campaign against illegal drugs to assess a deferral letter request from the Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands.
But last month, Prosecutor Karim Khan has asked the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I, in a 53-page application, to authorize the resumption of their investigation into the Philippines’ “bloody” war on drugs that resulted in thousands of unnecessary deaths.
