PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Friday said they are studying the possibility of returning under the fold of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“There is also a question, should we return under the fold of the ICC, so that’s again under study. So we’ll just keep looking at it and see what our options are,” Pres. Marcos, Jr., said in a media interview, after he was asked for his reaction on the three resolutions filed by six lawmakers, encouraging all the branches of the government to allow the ICC to investigate the alleged extra-judicial killings that happened in the country, during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

According to the President, who was one of the 17 senators who ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in the year 2011, there are a lot of options that they are studying in connection with the said resolutions.

Aside from returning under the fold of the ICC, the government is also considering to cooperate with the ICC and allow its investigators to enter the country and conduct their investigation on the killings, under the Duterte administration.

He said that they just need to make sure that the ICC still has jurisdiction to conduct investigation, even if the Philippines already withdrew from the ICC.

“But as I have always said, there are still some problems in terms of jurisdiction in and sovereignty. Now, if you can solve those problems then that would be something else. But, medyo fundamental ‘yung mga question na ganun,” Pres. Marcos explained.

He also clarified that should they allow the ICC to conduct investigation in the Philippines, it doesn’t mean that the country has no sovereignty and the ICC is free to do whatever they want.

“Simple lang para sa akin. Simple lang naman ‘yang isyung ‘yan. Hindi naman siguro tama na ang mga tiga-labas, mga dayuhan ang magsasabi sa atin kung sino iimbestigahan ng pulis natin, sino aarestuhin ng pulis natin, sinong ikukulong ng pulis natin. Hindi naman siguro tama ‘yun,” he further explained.

He also said that he respects the deliberation of the House of Representatives on the said resolutions. “It’s really a sense of the House resolution and the sense, they are just expressing or manifesting the sense of the House that perhaps it’s time to allow or to cooperate with the ICC investigations,” he said.

Last Wednesday, the House Committees on Justice and on Human Rights held a hearing regarding two resolutions filed by the Makabayan bloc and Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante and 1-Rider party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez.

Another resolution, authored by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman will also be included in the next joint hearings of the two committees.

The resolutions call on the government to cooperate with the ongoing ICC investigation related to the killing and violation of human rights by the authorities in the implementation of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

It can be recalled that after the ICC favored the investigation of the war on drugs in 2018, former President Duterte ordered the withdrawal of the Philippines from the Rome Statute that created the ICC.