The European Union has renewed its call for the Philippines to rejoin the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying that doing so means upholding human rights and a step to holding leaders accountable for the worst crimes.
“The Philippines is not part of the ICC at the moment. I hope it becomes again,” said EU Ambassador Massimo Santoro in a recent interview.
Human rights groups have called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to rejoin the Rome Statute and cooperate fully with the ICC’s investigation, including if further arrest warrants are issued against former and current Philippine government officials.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested and flown to The Hague, Netherlands in March, and is currently under ICC custody to be tried for crimes against humanity, in connection with his bloody drug war.
It was during Duterte’s administration that the Philippines withdrew from the ICC “effective immediately” after the ICC moved in February 2018 to launch a preliminary examination of his drug war killings to determine whether to open a full-blown investigation. For reasons only known to our leaders, the Philippines is yet to rejoin the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court. The country may have allowed the arrest and transfer of former president Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague, where he is to be tried for crimes against humanity, but as long as the country does not officially rejoin, talk and suspicions of the move being politically motivated, targeting only Duterte, cannot be dismissed.
If our leaders are truly serious about upholding human rights and upholding leaders accountable, rejoining the ICC would definitely send a message to current and future leaders that our country does not tolerate wrongdoing, and is ready to draw on the resources of the ICC to ensure that justice is served when our own justice system fails.*
