“You cannot acquire jurisdiction over me, not in a million years,” Duterte said in a speech late on Tuesday. They cannot ever, ever hope to acquire jurisdiction over my person.”His government says the ICC has no grounds to get involved because the Philippine judiciary and legal system functions independently and effectively. The government denies activists’ allegations that drug dealers and users are being systematically targeted for execution. Police say they have killed about 4,100 drug dealers, in shootouts, but have no ties to unidentified armed men who have killed hundreds of drug users. Duterte has also said the Philippines’ ICC membership might be invalid on a domestic level, because Manila’s 2011 accession to the ICC’s Rome Statute was not announced in the country’s official gazette.

Source: New Strait Times March 07, 2018 04:41 UTC