THERE’S no need for the Senate to approve President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute underpinning the International Criminal Court (ICC), Malacañang said on Saturday. The pullout preempted an ICC investigation into Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, which critics claimed amounted to a crime against humanity. The Senate resolution was lodged after Duterte, citing Western criticism over the conduct of his bloody drug war, threatened to leave the “useless” ICC. Pimentel: ICC complaints will be dismissedAlso on Saturday, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel 3rd said he believed the ICC would eventually dismiss the charges filed against President Duterte as these were politically motivated. “And yet the ICC entertained the complaint against President Duterte which stemmed from his domestic policy, his priority, to pursue an all out war against drugs.

Source: Manila Times March 17, 2018 16:18 UTC