Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. (Photo by BEN STANSALL / AFP)
Continuing his rant against the International Criminal Court (ICC), Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Sunday accused ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of prejudging President Duterte as guilty of extrajudicial killings in his brutal war on drugs.
Locsin said that last year, when he was still the country’s permanent representative to the Untied Nations, he got the Philippines out of the ICC because the tribunal was undermining the government’s sovereignty to decide how to fight the drug trade.
“I got us out of ICC because that woman was like the Queen in Alice in Wonderland (declaring): ‘First the judgment! Then the trial!’ Besides, the US just blacklisted the ICC,” Locsin tweeted.
‘Nothing to dodge’
Locsin also scoffed at Sen. Risa Hontiveros’ statement that the President would still be liable for offenses committed while the Philippines was a member of the ICC.
“There’s nothing to dodge. Or have you already prejudged as convictions allegations of suspicions?” he said.
The President withdrew the Philippines from the ICC last year after Bensouda announced that her office had opened a “preliminary examination” of information brought against the President and 11 of his officials about extrajudicial killings in the war on drugs.
The Philippine withdrawal took effect on Sunday.
It was Locsin who served the formal notice of what he called his “unilateral withdrawal” from the ICC.
Since last year, he has accused the ICC of being used against the Philippines supposedly by groups supporting drug syndicates.