MALACAÑANG on Tuesday said the Philippine government respects the US move to launch a campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"That is the policy of the United States, and we respect its position," Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said on Tuesday.
Former presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the US’ campaign against the ICC was "long in coming.”
In a statement, Panelo said that it is about time the bullying of ICC must stop, noting that the withdrawal of countries from the international tribunal "will result in its deserving obliteration."
"The illegal and unforgivable incarceration of former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, intruding into our country’s sovereignty with the cooperation of the Marcos Jr.’s administration, is a classic example of ICC’s unlawful intrusion to countries who are not members thereof," Panelo said.
"The ICC, by its intrusive and illegal actions against non-members, must be stopped at all costs," he added.
Manila withdrew from the Rome Statute that created the ICC in 2019 during the term of Duterte in a bid to stop the ICC prosecutor from its investigations. The withdrawal took effect a year later.
The US on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) announced a sweeping campaign against the ICC that could include further sanctions and other measures, accusing it of posing "an intolerable threat to US sovereignty."
The Trump administration said it would pressure other countries to withdraw from the court, marking a sharp escalation in the US effort to isolate The Hague-based institution and starve it of political and financial support.
"The ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes, compacts and the force of so-called international law," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a video statement.
The State Department said in a statement that the campaign will "systematically disable the ICC's ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty."
The US has previously targeted individual court officials it deems a threat to US interests, but the new "whole of government" campaign will pressure other nations "to withdraw from the ICC and cut off any financial support to the court," a State Department official told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity. Catherine Valente with AFP
