MANILA — The Philippines will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation into a brutal anti-narcotics campaign carried out under its former president, current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday.
Reiterating the international body has no jurisdiction, Marcos told reporters the government is monitoring the ICC investigators’ presence in the country and has ordered agencies not to assist their probe.
“I consider it as a threat to our sovereignty. Therefore, the Philippine government will not lift a finger to help any investigation that the ICC conducts,” Marcos said.
ICC investigators can come and visit “as ordinary people” but the government will not assist them, Marcos said.
The Philippines withdrew from the international tribunal, effective in 2019, after then President Rodrigo Duterte questioned its authority to investigate the campaign against illegal drugs that killed thousands of people.
Last year, the ICC rejected Manila’s appeal to stop its drug war probe and cleared the way for an investigation into the killings.
— Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Mikhail Flores; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Christian Schmollinger
