Duterte still has to answer complaints filed at ICC—Hontiveros

BACOLOD CITY—President Duterte still has to answer the complaint filed at the International Criminal Court despite the country’s withdrawal from the ICC, an opposition senator said.

“Any and all actions of the President that may have been subject of complaints in the court, the country is still obliged to cooperate with an investigation,” said Sen. Risa Hontiveros in a news conference here on Friday.

“The President is still accountable at the very least to answer since there is a complaint,” she added.

Hontiveros said Mr. Duterte’s decision to withdraw from the ICC might be an indication of “fear or guilt about the alleged offenses that are contained in the complaint.”

“Mr. President, there is no running from truth, accountability and justice. There is no hiding from the ICC,” she said.

Asked if withdrawal from the ICC would affect the image of the country, Hontiveros said that even before the complaint was filed at the ICC, the country already had a bad image internationally amid the humiliation of women and the undermining of the constitutional processes and institutions by the chief executive.

But Senator Cynthia Villar said in a separate news conference that there were a lot of countries that were not members of the ICC.

Hontiveros was here to lead in the blessing and inauguration of a new barangay health center in Barangay Alijis, Bacolod City

Villar was here for another engagement – lanching of the Sugar Industry Development Act socialized credit program.