Marcos Says Philippines Won’t Help Probe Into Duterte’s Drug War

(Bloomberg) -- Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said his country will not help the International Criminal Court in investigating his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

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“Let me say this for the 100th time, I do not recognize the jurisdiction of ICC in the Philippines. I consider it as a threat to our sovereignty,” Marcos told reporters on Tuesday.

“Therefore, the Philippine government will not lift a finger to help any investigation that the ICC conducts,” he added.

Philippines’ Marcos Rejects International Probe on Duterte

Marcos’s remarks come days after former Senator Antonio Trillanes, who in 2017 filed a supplemental complaint against Duterte in the International Criminal Court, told local media that investigators of the Hague-based tribunal visited the Philippines in December to gather evidence. Trillanes said an arrest warrant against Duterte may be issued within the first half of the year, according to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report.

The Southeast Asian nation’s leader said the government is “making sure” that the court investigators “do not come into contact with any agency of government.”

The international court last year resumed its probe into the alleged crime against humanity under Duterte’s controversial drug war. More than 6,000 were killed in the anti-narcotics campaign, based on government data, but human rights groups estimate a higher death toll, mostly among the poor.

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