‘PH gov’t won’t enforce ICC warrant’

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra (file photo)

MANILA, Philippines–The Philippine government will not enforce any warrant or processes of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the government’s lead counsel said Tuesday.

Saying the ICC is a threat to national security, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said: “The Philippine government will therefore not lend any assistance to the ICC investigation, much less the enforcement in Philippine territory of any processes issued by the ICC.”

Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV earlier said ICC investigators have already visited the Philippines last December and gathered enough evidence against former President Rodrigo Duterte.

“The Philippines had long ended all engagements, both formal and informal, with the ICC. We are therefore unaware of any factual basis for Trillanes’ statements about the status of the ICC investigation,” Guevarra said.

The ICC is a court of last resort that can exercise jurisdiction if states are unable or unwilling to investigate crimes.

Duterte and his allies have repeatedly said that the country’s justice system is fully functioning and there is no need for the ICC to step in.

The Philippines withdrew as a State party from the ICC’s Rome Statute effective March 17, 2019.

ICC Special Prosecutor Karim Khan, however,  said the Philippines was still a party to the Rome Statute that created the ICC when the alleged abuses and extrajudicial killings related to Duterte’s crackdown on illegal drugs took place.

Khan stressed the scope of the probe covers alleged crimes from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019.