MANILA: The Philippine government said on Wednesday (Nov 13) it would not stand in the way if former President Rodrigo Duterte wants to surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and would be obliged to comply if his arrest was sought over his war on drugs.
During a congressional hearing on Wednesday into the bloody crackdown on narcotics that killed thousands of Filipinos, the mercurial Duterte said he was not scared of the ICC and told it to “hurry up” on its investigation into his possible crimes against humanity.
The office of the current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr issued a statement hours later indicating it would be willing to consider handing Duterte over if an Interpol request was made.
“The government will feel obliged to consider the red notice as a request to be honoured, in which case the domestic law enforcement agencies shall be bound to accord full cooperation,” the president’s executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said.
The statement was significant, marking the first time the Philippine government has suggested it would cooperate with the ICC, which last year cleared the way for an investigation into the bloody campaign that defined Duterte’s 2016-2022 presidency.
Duterte when president unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in March 2019 after it opened a preliminary examination of the killings. The court has said its prosecutors have jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed before the withdrawal.
In the statement, Bersamin said the government would neither object nor block Duterte if he wished to surrender.
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