UN: Phl withdrawal from ICC takes effect after a year

The United Nations has received official notification of the Philippines’ decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), a decision that followed the tribunal’s announcement of a preliminary examination of drug-related killings under the Duterte administration.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the treaty section of the Office of Legal Affairs received a document Saturday signed by Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano informing Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of the Philippines’ decision to pull out of the ICC.

Haq said the document “constitutes a notification” under the Rome Statute that established the court, and “the withdrawal shall therefore take effect for the Philippines one year after the date of receipt, i.e., on March 17, 2019.”

President Duterte on Sunday called the court “rude” and urged other countries to withdraw.

In remarks before graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) in Silang, Cavite yesterday, Duterte taunted the ICC for what he considered its lack of jurisdiction over accusations of extrajudicial killings against his administration.

He reiterated the drug war was a necessary action to save Filipinos from the menace. Duterte’s new tirade against the ICC came in the wake of the latter’s statement that the country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute would not prevent the tribunal from investigating him.

He stressed the Rome Statute had never really taken effect in the Philippines as it was not published in the Official Gazette.

“No way that you will acquire jurisdiction over my person, not in a million years. I will not allow it,” Duterte said. “I have a duty to perform and I will not hesitate.

“We are facing the drug front… we are facing the secessionist movement –the NPA,” he said, referring to the communist New People’s Army.

Duterte added he needed to protect policemen at the forefront of his war on drugs and against the communist rebels.

“I am brighter than them. The issues that I raised… that no person will be deprived of life, liberty and property without due process of law,” Duterte said.

“The non publication of the law is part of the process of due process of the law… if it is a law, it must be published. Because the law says ignorance of the law excuses no one,” Duterte said.

The Philippines signed the Rome Statute on Aug. 23, 2011, making it the 117th state to join the ICC created under the treaty.

Understandable

Meanwhile, Moscow said it fully understands the Philippines’ decision to withdraw from the ICC even as the United States voiced the need for states to cooperate with the tribunal.

“We respect the decision of His Excellency President Duterte and we fully understand his concern. We fully understand the reasons which became the basis for taking such a decision,” said Russian Ambassador Igor Khovaev in a press conference on Tuesday.

He cited the “highly politicized” activities of the ICC as reason for Russia’s own withdrawal from the Rome Statute.

“As for Russia, Russia signed the so-called Rome Statute many years ago but we have never ratified this document, and three years ago we had withdrawn from ICC,” he said. “Why? It’s very simple to explain our position. In our assessment the ICC is not a judicial board.”

The ambassador also noted that the ICC has been “used as an instrument to put political pressure on selective governments, on selective countries.”

“So we cannot accept such an approach. That’s why my country decided to withdraw from the Rome Statute,” Khovaev said. –