1 day ago
2
After former president Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, how do reelectionist senators and former senators seeking a comeback view the ICC now?
As that is expected to be a campaign season talking point, Rappler revisits the positions on the ICC of senatorial aspirants under the banner of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas.
Most of them were once allies of former president Duterte, and at least half held views critical of the ICC when he was in Malacañang.
Manny Pacquiao
In 2017, senators tried to pass a resolution filed by Franklin Drilon declaring that the Senate has a say in the termination of an international agreement, in the wake of then-president Duterte’s threats to pull out of the Rome Statute and the Visiting Forces Agreement.
Fourteen senators signed it, but Manny Pacquiao actively opposed the document, filing his own resolution that insisted the Senate does not have the power to weigh in on the abrogation of treaties.
In 2021, after declaring his presidential bid, Pacquiao, who by that time already lost favor with the Duterte administration, said he won’t block an ICC investigation in the Philippines if elected.
Tito Sotto
Vicente “Tito” Sotto III was among the senators who signed the 2011 resolution ratifying the Rome Statute, and also supported Drilon’s resolution in 2017. However, he later became more critical of the International Criminal Court, particularly when he already replaced Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III as Senate president.
“From 1945 to 1946, up to the present, has anything good happened involving the ICC? Has there been an event where the Philippines benefited? None. As a matter of fact, it seems that we are being harassed now as far as the media is concerned,” Sotto said in 2019.
By the time of his vice presidential campaign in 2022, Sotto had become less antagonistic to the ICC, believing the court could check the accuracy of the reported drug war death toll in the Philippines.
Erwin Tulfo
Erwin Tulfo was a broadcaster for state media during Duterte’s time as president. During one of his shows, he cursed the ICC for investigating Duterte even though the country had already pulled out of the international tribunal.
“Prosecutor [Fatou Bensouda], most Filipinos, if not all, hate ICC. We don’t want you to interfere with our affairs. We don’t want you to meddle with our issues because what this government is doing is trying to clean up our society that has been neglected by the past presidents,” Tulfo said in 2019.
The ICC has twice ruled that it has jurisdiction over Duterte’s case because the process started before the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute.
In 2023, Tulfo called an insult the ICC’s decision to junk the appeal of the Philippine government under the Marcos administration to stop its investigation into Duterte’s drug war,
Francis Tolentino
Francis Tolentino was among those who tried to undermine Bensouda’s credibility. Tolentino, once a member of Duterte’s party PDP Laban, had questioned Bensouda’s capability to “objectively conduct an investigation” when she was supposedly considered persona non-grata for terrorist links.
“A lot of questions will have to be answered first whether a retired prosecutor can still recommend the prosecution of a head of state of a non-Treaty of Rome signatory,” Tolentino said in 2021.
The United States under the rule of Donald Trump placed Bensouda in its SDN (specifically designated national) list, blocking her assets and preventing her from entering the US, but this did not automatically mean that Washington identified her as a terrorist. The administration of Joe Biden also later removed Bensouda from that list.
Bong Revilla
Bong Revilla voted to approve the ratification of the Rome Statute in 2011. In 2019, he said the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC did not have an effect on the country’s justice system.
“We are a sovereign nation, and we are not under the control of any other state. The ICC investigates atrocious crimes in the international community, but does not have teeth to supersede a sovereign nation’s domestic affairs,” he said.
Revilla’s criticism of the ICC, however, became sharper when Marcos took office in Malacañang. He came to the defense of Duterte and Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa when rumors emerged in 2023 that the court would soon issue arrest warrants against them.
“The ICC, with its patent partiality which is so manifestly politically-motivated, has totally lost its credibility. These bullies are driven by their own selfish interests, and they cannot fool us into thinking that they can discharge justice,” Revilla said.
Imee Marcos
In 2021, Imee Marcos said the ICC should not interfere with the judicial processes of the Philippines. She added that she was in favor of Rodrigo Duterte’s planned vice presidential bid at the time to protect himself from the international tribunal.
“Everything is fine here with us, why should that ICC interfere? We need to defend president Duterte,” the President’s sister had said.
Imee is the only politician in the administration’s senatorial ticket to publicly lament Duterte’s arrest.
“This won’t get us anywhere, it only brings chaos. Political squabbles don’t benefit the people who are suffering in the country,” she said earlier this week.
Other aspirants
- Ping Lacson voted to ratify the Rome Statute in 2011, and in 2017 signed Drilon’s resolution declaring that the Senate should have a say before the government withdraws from a treaty. In 2021, he said he would support the Philippines’ return to the ICC.
- Pia Cayetano also voted to ratify the Rome Statute. The Cayetanos were once close allies of the Dutertes.
- As the first interior chief of the Marcos administration, Benhur Abalos heeded the President’s directive on the ICC probe, saying that his agency would not cooperate with the tribunal.
- Lito Lapid, Abby Binay, and Camille Villar have not publicly expressed their views about the ICC.
President Marcos, who also voted to ratify the Rome Statute when he was a senator, has also been antagonistic towards the ICC. He had said it encroaches on the country’s sovereignty, although he once floated the possibility of the Philippines’ returning as a member-state.
Duterte’s arrest was made possible because the ICC coursed its arrest warrant through the Interpol, of which the Philippines is a member and has obligations to.
“This is what the international community expects of us as the leader of a democratic country that is part of the community of nations,” Marcos said. – Rappler.com
