A BATANGAS lawmaker has called on the government to reconsider its withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Rep. Gerville Luistro (Batangas 2nd district) said on Friday that the Philippines’ withdrawal was a “devastating decision.”
Former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2019 pulled the Philippines out of the Rome Statute as he accused the ICC of being a “political tool” of his detractors, after a prosecutor of the court began a preliminary investigation into his administration’s bloody war on drugs.
In a statement on Friday, Luistro, who is a member of the House Quad Committee that investigates the Duterte administration’s drug war, said that the ICC would act as a “court of last resort” that would complement domestic courts that would investigate and try individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community, such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.
“It is imperative for the Philippines to take an unqualified position in its membership in the ICC, not to mention that these commitments are anchored on values that are parallel with that of the Philippines, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the 1987 Philippine Constitution,” Luistro, a lawyer, added.
She said that the country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute sent a “wrong message to the international community that we were unwilling to uphold the protection and promotion of human rights inherent to every individual.”
“At its core, the withdrawal from the [treaty that created the ICC] signified to our people that our government’s commitment to international treaties, more importantly to our domestic laws, is malleable enough and can be distorted to the whims of a select few,” Luistro said.
Luistro’s stand is a marked contrast from other members of the House Quad Committee, who said that they are not willing to cooperate with the ICC, especially in providing its transcripts from the quadcomm hearings.
“Our president has made it clear that we do not recognize the ICC in the Philippines right now. So it’s up to them to investigate, but I’m not going to allow the Committee on Human Rights to be used by the ICC for their own investigation,” House Human Rights panel chairman Bienvenido Abante said last August.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had reiterated that the Philippines will not cooperate in any investigation of the ICC unless it was permitted by Rodrigo Duterte himself.
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