The Philippines has severed communications with the tribunal after clashing over an investigation of its drug war.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has broken off his government’s contact with the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the tribunal rejected an appeal to halt an investigation of his predecessor’s bl**dy crackdown on drug dealers.

“That ends all our involvement with the ICC,” Marcos told reporters on Tuesday in Manila. “At this point, we essentially are disengaging from any contact, any communication.”

The decision came after the ICC, based in the Hague, last week refused a request by the Philippine government to drop its investigation of alleged executions and police cover-ups during a drug war launched by former President Rodrigo Duterte. The court reopened the probe in January after suspending it in 2021 at the request of Manila, which claimed to be doing its own investigation.

“We cannot cooperate with the ICC considering the very serious questions about their jurisdiction and about what we consider to be interference and practically attacks on the sovereignty of the republic,” Marcos said.

Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC’s founding treaty in 2018. His daughter, Sara Duterte, now the country’s vice president, was Marcos’ running mate in last year’s presidential election. Marcos, the son of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, swept to power in a landslide victory last May.

The ICC is billed as a court of last resort that investigates and prosecutes crimes in cases where nations are unable or unwilling to do the job themselves. The tribunal has asserted that even when a country withdraws from the charter, the ICC can probe crimes that were committed when it was still a member.

Philippine officials have argued that their own law enforcement authorities are capable of investigating allegations over Duterte’s drug war, which reportedly left more than 7,700 people dead. Menardo Guevarra, solicitor general of the Philippines, claimed in 2021 that government investigators had identified possible criminal activity by more than 150 police officers.

Duterte has insisted that he gave no orders to kill drug suspects, other than when police were acting in self-defense. He said in 2021 that he would be willing to face trial in the Philippines, but he wouldn’t stand before the “animals” of the ICC. In 2016, the then-president called threats of the ICC jailing him “bullsh*t,” and he blasted the US for threatening to have him prosecuted by the tribunal despite the fact that Washington isn’t even a signatory to the court.
https://www.rt.com/news/573762-philippines-cuts-ties-with-icc/



Russian diplomat reminds ICC of US history of removing children from Vietnam


Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that she is waiting for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for US political figures involved in the removal of children from Vietnam in the 1970s.

"Against the background of obscurantism and Western intrigues around the International Criminal Court and their false claims, particularly about Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, I would like to take a look back at how Washington engaged in machinations involving children," she wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.

According to Zakharova, the Americans "started to take children from Vietnam in large numbers" during Operation Babylift. The diplomat noted that the operation "was conducted very poorly" and not without avoiding human casualties. "On April 4, 1975, a Lockheed C-5A Galaxy transport aircraft of the US Air Force crashed over Vietnam due to the criminal negligence of US military authorities, claiming the lives of 78 kids. <...> I’m really looking forward to the day when the International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for the leaders of the United States, the Pentagon and all those ‘humanitarian foundations’ that played a role in this operation," Zakharova added.

On March 17, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova, saying that she was allegedly responsible for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.

https://tass.com/politics/1593115