Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile on Tuesday (Sept. 12) believes that the Philippine government should just let the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate the killings that took place during the drug war of the previous administration.
The former senator, however, asserted that the country’s robust judicial system is still working to handle any crime happening within its jurisdiction.
“Let the ICC do what it thinks it is its job to do,” the former senator said in a Facebook post.
“But we maintain that the Philippine judicial and justice systems remain strong and in place to deal with crimes committed within our sovereign jurisdiction,” he pointed out.
Enrile reminded that, despite the withdrawal of the Philippines as signatory of the Rome Statute that created the ICC, the international court “decided to reopen and proceed with its investigation on ALLEGED crimes committed in the course of the previous government’s ‘war on drugs’.”
The Philippine withdrawal took effect in 2019 following the directive of then President Rodrigo Duterte.
Last July, the ICC Appeals Chamber denied the Philippine appeal to deny the order of the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber that directed the ICC Office of the Prosecutor to resume the investigation of the Duterte administration’s drug war.
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