President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. stood firm before German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, asserting that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has no jurisdiction over the Philippines.
During a bilateral meeting with Scholz in Berlin on Tuesday, Marcos emphasized that the Philippines possesses a functioning judicial system and law enforcement mechanisms.
“That is something that we now have to deal with. Well, there is now a conflict between… in terms of jurisdiction because, in our opinion, the ICC was created when a country has no judiciary, no functioning judiciary, no police force to enforce peace and order; enforce law,” Marcos said.
Marcos stated that the ICC’s apparent intrusion into the Philippine judicial system is a matter that the government must address.
He expressed that it is erroneous for the ICC to intervene in the Philippines’ judicial process, emphasizing that the country has a functioning judiciary and “a functioning military and police force that uphold the rule of law.”
The Philippines officially severed ties with the ICC on March 17, 2019, one year after formally notifying the United Nations of its withdrawal from the Rome Statute.
“And so, it’s really a question of jurisdiction and we have our own investigations and we’re capable of conducting our own investigations and, so we are, we are continuing to do so,” Marcos told Scholz.
“But as a matter of principle, it is very difficult for the Philippines to accept that an outside court will, shall I say, dictate to our policemen, ‘who they will investigate, who they will arrest and who will say, that hey, because we don’t need that advice’,” Marcos said.
Marcos said “there are too many lawyers in the Philippines already” for the ICC to still intervene.
Marcos sat in a bilateral meeting with Scholz on Tuesday in Berlin, which coincided with the 70th anniversary of Philippines-Germany diplomatic relations that was formally established on October 8, 1954.
