The Philippines has no plans to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC), President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said, a decision that supports his predecessor’s stance but denies demands from human rights activists. Former President Rodrigo Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the Hague tribunal in 2019 after the body launched an investigation the previous year into its campaign against illegal drugs that led to thousands of killings. “The Philippines has no intention of rejoining the ICC,” Marcos Jr. said in response to a question at a press conference. Marcos Jr., who took office on June 30, said he recently met with his justice secretary and other legal advisers to discuss the possible resumption of the ICC’s investigation into the drug killings. ICC judges in September authorized prosecutor Karim Khan to investigate the killings during the Duterte crackdown from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019. The investigation, however, was suspended in November after the Philippines said in a letter to Khan that it was already investigating the allegations, so the international court had no jurisdiction. “We are saying that there is already an investigation here and the investigation is ongoing. Why should there be such things?’ Marcos Jr. said, questioning the possible resumption of the ICC investigation. The ICC is a court of last resort for cases that countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute. Under the court’s rules, a country can request that an investigation be postponed if it is already investigating it internally. Khan, however, sought to continue his investigation, saying in June: “I have concluded that the postponement requested by the Philippines is not justified and that the investigation should resume as soon as possible.” Based on police statistics, more than 6,000 mostly poor drug suspects were killed in Duterte’s police crackdown. Human rights groups say the death toll is significantly higher and must include many unsolved killings by motorcycle-riding gunmen who may have been deployed by police. Duterte defended the crackdown as “legitimately directed against the drug barons and pushers who have for many years destroyed the present generation, especially the youth.” He has denied condoning the extrajudicial killings of drug suspects, although he has openly threatened suspects with death and ordered police to shoot suspects who dangerously resist arrest. Marcos Jr. has faced calls to prosecute Duterte over the drug deaths, but has praised his predecessor in recent speeches. His running mate, Sara Duterte, is the former president’s daughter and helped Marcos Jr win the election in May.
