MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute is not a free pass for President Duterte to escape the judicial mantle of the International Criminal Court (ICC) or evade accountability for the deaths of thousands of alleged victims of his brutal war on drugs, according to former ICC Judge Raul Pangalangan. Malacañang said Duterte would not cooperate with the probe since the Philippines had already bolted from the treaty in 2019. “When [we] signed the statute [in 2011], we agreed to the terms laid down in the statute,” Pangalangan said. It retains jurisdiction over all crimes committed in its territory while it was still a member of the Rome Statute,” he said. ‘Global police’Duterte ordered the country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute in March 2018, a month after Bensouda announced that she would start a preliminary examination of the complaints against him.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer June 25, 2021 21:22 UTC