SENATE Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to reconsider his position and get the country to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Pimentel made this appeal before members of the diplomatic community during a foreign policy address at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday.
“Let us rejoin the ICC. We should treat this our ‘insurance policy’ just in case our system fails us, and we get to elect an abusive, tyrannical, heartless leader, and our justice system fails us too,” Pimentel said in his speech.
The Philippines withdrew from the ICC seven years after the ICC, in 2017, announced an investigation into the Duterte administration’s bloody anti-drug campaign.
Saying joining the ICC is an executive action, Pimentel said the ball is in the President’s court and urged Marcos to sign the necessary documents to reenter the ICC.
At the sidelines of the address, Pimentel told the media that his proposal for the Philippines to rejoin the ICC would serve as the Filipino people’s recourse against a “killer” and “tyrannical” leader or when they see that the justice system is failing.
“We are monitoring the quad comm, and here in the Senate, we also have an investigation. We’ve seen that in the worst-case scenario where our systems fail, such as when our democratic system elects a killer as a leader, one without conscience or compassion, and our justice system is slow to respond. It’s best to have an ‘insurance policy,'” Pimentel said.
Pimentel also recommended that the Philippines join the Brics alliance in the same forum, a group led by China and Russia designed to counterweight US and Western influence.
“Let the Philippines apply to join Brics. The march to a multi-polar world is inevitable as such is consistent with human nature. We should support the idea of a multi-polar world,” Pimentel said.
He added that the Philippines would strengthen its position within a more balanced global power structure by joining Brics, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
He said Brics is a viable alternative to the current Western-dominated global order.
“We should re-calibrate our foreign policy strategy and tactics towards projecting this particular image of the Philippines to the entire world — that the Philippines is a friend to all nations and is a responsible and law-abiding member of the community of nations.”
Pimentel added: “The ultimate test that we have to pass to say that we have succeeded in this mission is if the Philippines becomes accepted by the rest of the world as their natural choice for a neutral venue for ‘talks, especially those involving settling disputes.
“I dream that the Philippines should host talks, not bases,” he added, in reference to Philippine military bases that US troops are allowed by treaty to access.
Also on Friday, the Akbayan party-list challenged Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa to submit the transcript of the Senate Blue Ribbon hearings on the war on drugs to the ICC if he truly thinks that “it doesn’t hold water.”
First nominee Chel Diokno said Dela Rosa’s resistance “underscores the gravity of the testimonies contained within, which could implicate not only himself but also former president Rodrigo Duterte and others in the systematic extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of alleged drug suspects.”
“If Senator Bato truly believes these accusations hold no water, why is he so afraid to release the transcripts? If he’s not guilty, he should bring the transcript to the ICC,” Diokno dared Dela Rosa, who refused to make the records available to the public and the world court.
“His refusal is nothing short of an admission of guilt. The statements made under oath reveal deeply incriminating details that could serve as compelling evidence of the Duterte administration’s brutal anti-drug campaign,” he added.
Diokno emphasized that the records from the hearings are “public documents,” and concealing them would be “utterly indefensible.”
The party-list also called Dela Rosa to step down from investigative roles in the Senate and appear as a resource speaker.
“[Dela Rosa’s] opposition to transparency proves he cannot be trusted to conduct a fair investigation. Instead of seeking truth and accountability, he is using his position to shield Duterte and his allies from justice,” Diokno said.
Senate President Francis Escudero and Pimentel, a former Duterte ally and the chairman of the committee hearing, said the records cannot be withheld and should be open to public examination.
Diokno’s comments were a response to Dela Rosa’s rejection of publicizing the transcript of the Senate Blue Ribbon hearings on the war on drugs.
Dela Rosa was the chief of the Philippine National Police and the director general of the Bureau of Corrections during the Duterte administration before being elected as Senator in 2019. As police chief, he led Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
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