{"id":10799,"date":"2025-02-17T01:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=10799"},"modified":"2025-03-12T11:11:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T10:11:00","slug":"justice-secretary-declares-limited-cooperation-with-icc-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/justice-secretary-declares-limited-cooperation-with-icc-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Secretary declares limited cooperation with ICC possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January 2025, the Philippine Coalition for the ICC (PCICC<\/a>) urged<\/a> the Marcos Jr. administration to expedite its cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to address the crimes committed during the previous administration’s so-called \u201cwar on drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe talk with the ICC is long overdue,\u201d said<\/a> PCICC Co-Chairperson and Spokesperson Aurora Parong in a \u00a0<\/a>. Parong\u2019s call came at the heels of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla\u2019s comment<\/a> that limited cooperation with the ICC in investigating alleged crimes against humanity committed by the so-called Davao death squad during the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte is possible.<\/p>\n

“We will talk to them soon in a very well-defined manner, in the spirit of comity,” Remulla said in an interview<\/a> last January 23, 2025. Remulla’s remarks indicate a shift from his government\u2019s previous stance of non-cooperation<\/a> with the ICC and its earlier claim that the court has no authority to conduct investigations in his country. Cooperation with an international tribunal remains permissible under Philippine law, he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aurora Parong, however, pointed out<\/a> that Remulla\u2019s statement to possibly cooperate with the ICC is not enough, referring to the persistent drug-related killings, injustices, and impunity. \u201cState-sanctioned murders do not have a place in a supposed democratic country thus direct perpetrators and those who made the widespread killings in the war on drugs possible must be made accountable,\u201d Parong further elaborated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Duterte and his supporters should not \u201cbaselessly deny\u201d that he cannot be taken to court for trial, explained<\/a> Kristina Conti, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples\u2019 Lawyers. For violations of the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability and for conduct unbecoming a lawyer, a complaint<\/a> to disbar Rodrigo Duterte was filed by human rights advocates and relatives of victims of extrajudicial killings in the context of the \u201cwar on drugs\u201d at the Philippine Supreme Court on January 17, 2025.<\/p>\n

Opposition lawmakers also urged<\/a> President Marcos Jr. to rejoin the ICC, stressing the lack of progress in domestic investigations and the need for international oversight for justice. The Philippines left<\/a> the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, in 2019.<\/p>\n

The Philippines will respond \u201cfavorably\u201d if the ICC seeks the help of Interpol in implementing arrest warrants that could be issued against crime perpetrators, including Ex-President Duterte, emphasized<\/a> Marcos Jr.\u2019s Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin in a press briefing. Retorting to this\u00a0statement, Senator Ronald dela Rosa criticized<\/a> the Marcos Jr. administration, calling it \u201cleaderless.\u201d Dela Rosa was chief of the Philippine National Police that implemented Ex-President Duterte\u2019s \u201cwar on drugs.\u201d Finally, Marcos Jr. still maintains<\/a> that his government will not assist the ICC Investigations in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo \u00a9<\/b> Raffy Lerma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In January 2025, the Philippine Coalition for the ICC (PCICC) urged the Marcos Jr. administration to expedite its cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to address the crimes committed during the previous administration’s so-called \u201cwar on drugs.\u201d \u201cThe talk with the ICC is long overdue,\u201d said PCICC Co-Chairperson and Spokesperson Aurora Parong in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,58,62,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aktuelles-en","category-human-rights-news","category-international-institutions","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10799"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10860,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799\/revisions\/10860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}