Former President Rodrigo Duterte. - Screengrab from Basta Dabawenyo podcast.
MANILA: Former President Rodrigo Duterte unleashed a barrage of attacks against the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating him over allegations of crimes against humanity in his bloody war on drugs.
Duterte made the profanity-laden remarks on Monday (Aug 12) in a podcast hosted by former presidential spokespersons Harry Roque and Trixie Cruz-Angeles, who served under the administrations of Duterte and incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, respectively.
“I do not recognise that,” Duterte said, as he questioned the jurisdiction of the ICC in the country.
In March 2018, Duterte declared the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute, or the treaty that established the ICC, following the accusation against him. The withdrawal took effect exactly a year later.
Despite this, the ICC retained jurisdiction over alleged crimes in the Philippines — from Nov 1, 2011, to March 16, 2019 — while the country was still a state party.
“ICC, *%# you,” he also said after flashing his middle finger, which was met by laughter from Roque and Angeles.
The former president also slammed the ICC over what he thinks is its double standards when it comes to Western countries.
“So many things are happening in the world. Massacre here, massacre there. Even the Americans, how many did they kill? What did the #@%*# in the ICC do? There are so many injustices, senseless violence, without reason, especially perpetrated by Americans,” Duterte said.
“You did not do anything. You Europeans, this is your invention. You go to post-colonial countries, your former colonies, then you get mad at your replacement because you lost your colonies, then you chase after them,” he added.
Duterte was the chief architect of the bloody drug war waged during his roles as the country’s president and as mayor of Davao City.
The drug war under his presidency claimed at least 6,000 lives during his term as president, according to official government data.
But human rights watchdogs and the ICC itself estimated the death toll under Duterte’s drug war to be between 12,000 and 30,000 from 2016 to 2019 alone, as they noted that several of these were extrajudicial killings.
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra recently said that the government under the Marcos administration will not stand in the way of the ICC prosecutor’s investigation of Duterte’s brutal war against illegal drugs.
Guevarra, who was the Department of Justice (DOJ) chief under Duterte, said last month that while the country has no legal duty to assist the ICC prosecutor in pursuing the probe, the government “cannot stop him from proceeding any way he wants.”
Incumbent DOJ chief Jesus Crispin Remulla said his agency would not interfere should the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) arrest those named in the complaint filed by drug war victims with the ICC.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, without stating his source, on Tuesday said that the ICC prosecutor’s probe into the brutal campaign against illegal drugs had reached a pivotal point, adding that a warrant of arrest will be issued by the court by September. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
