EDITORIAL — Rejoining the ICC

The International Criminal Court steps in when a state is unable or unwilling to prosecute possible genocide or crimes against humanity. There are Philippine government officials who say the country does not need the ICC because the legal system is fully functional.

Even if the pillars of the legal system are in place and functioning, however, if political will is absent, the inability and unwillingness will be there. In the previous administration, for example, holding government officials and law enforcers accountable for abuses in the bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, which led to thousands of deaths, was almost impossible, except in a handful of cases.

This inability – and suspected unwillingness – was manifested, for example, even when Rodrigo Duterte was no longer in power and his first secretary of justice was appointed solicitor general by President Marcos. None of the thousands of drug-related killings was investigated either by the police or the Office of the Solicitor General for possible violation of Republic Act 9851, which covers international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

RA 9851 was signed way back in December 2009, but it has reportedly been applied only in a little known case in Mindanao.

Considering the weakness of the rule of law in this country, it cannot be ruled out that the deadly abuses committed in the so-called war on drugs could happen again.

In that case, the nation should still have the option to turn to agencies outside the country to investigate the abuses, penalize those responsible and consequently prevent impunity.

President Marcos had said in November 2023 that the Philippines’ return to the ICC was “under study.” The result of that study has yet to be announced. In the meantime, Malacañang was asked on Thursday to comment on calls from Irene Khan, the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, for the Philippines to rejoin the Rome Statute that created the ICC.

Malacañang’s reply? The President “is open to it.”

Duterte had withdrawn the Philippines from the Rome Statute on March 17, 2018. The withdrawal took effect one year later.

Now Duterte is being held without bail in The Hague, and his daughter faces an impeachment trial as well as possible criminal indictment for alleged misuse of public funds.

It’s time for President Marcos to make up his mind and announce the outcome of his study on rejoining the ICC.