Duterte pulls Philippines from International Criminal Court over drug war criticism
RODRIGO DUTERTE, the Philippine president, announced yesterday that he would immediately withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court (ICC), in the latest clash with global institutions investigating his deadly war on drugs.
In a rare written statement Mr Duterte said the Philippines would with- draw its ratification of the Rome Statute, the treaty underpinning the court.
“I therefore declare and forthwith give notice, as president of the Republic of the Philippines, that the Philippines is withdrawing its ratification of the Rome Statute effective immedi- ately,” he said.
Mr Duterte justified turning his back on the court due to “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks on my person as well as against my administration,” by United Nations officials.
He referred to what he claimed was an attempt by the ICC prosecutor to seek jurisdiction over him “in violation of due process and presumption of innocence”. The Hague-based ICC announced in February that it was launching a “preliminary examination” of Mr Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs, which has unleashed an orgy of violence and extrajudicial killings, sparking international alarm.
The decision to investigate followed a complaint filed by a Philippine lawyer accusing Mr Duterte and his leading officials of crimes against humanity. The Philippines becomes the first South East Asian nation to be put under a preliminary examination by the ICC prosecutor.
The police say authorities have killed nearly 4,000 drug suspects in the course of the campaign, an official figure that comes on top of many thousands who have been gunned down by unknown masked assassins since Mr Duterte took power in mid-2016.