Philippines will not block ICC case against former President Duterte for his fight against drugs

MADRID 14 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., announced this Thursday that they will not block or cooperate with the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, for alleged human rights violations during his controversial fight against drugs. .

Marcos Jr. has returned to this issue a day after Duterte appeared in Congress and refused to take any type of responsibility for the deaths of some 30,000 people, according to some estimates, who stopped his fight against drugs and encouraged to the TPI to investigate him.

“I have nothing to hide. What I did, I did for my country and for the young people. There are no excuses. There are no apologies. If I go to hell, so be it,” Duterte said during a marathon session in Congress, media reports Filipinos.

For his part, Marcos Jr. has assured that “if that is the former president’s wish”, his Government will not block any investigation by the TPI, but they will not cooperate either. “If you agree to speak, or be investigated, it is up to you,” he concluded.

Marcos Jr. has also confirmed that the Justice Department will analyze Duterte’s statements in Congress to determine whether it is necessary to open a case in the Philippines. “All the testimonies will be evaluated to see their meaning and consequences in legal terms. We will have to wait,” he said.

For now, he has assured that the Philippines will comply with Interpol in the event that it issues an international arrest warrant, which would come at the request of the CFI. “We have obligations with Interpol, we have to comply with those obligations. We will see how far it goes. We will see what the CFI does,” he said.

According to official figures, Duterte’s anti-drug campaign (2016-2022) left about 6,000 dead, although some Human Rights organizations estimate that about 30,000 people died during that period, marked by a system of financial rewards for police officers who killed alleged traffickers.

Duterte unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019 in response to criticism from The Hague and launching his own investigation. Thousands of vendors and consumers were shot dead in circumstances that remain unclear. According to the Government, most of these cases were disputes between rival gangs.