CLAIM: Duterte said the ICC has not taken any action against anyone and has not imprisoned anyone.
RATING: This is false.
FACTS:
What he said
During the House Quad Committee’s eleventh hearing into the war on drugs on Wednesday, November 13, Rep. Lordan Suan (Cagayan De Oro, 1st District) questioned Duterte’s 2018 decision to withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statute.
At the 3:04:15 to 3:04:42 mark of the livestream’s second part, Duterte responded that the withdrawal “has nothing to do with the drug war,” remarking that the ICC’s efforts and trials yield no results, as no one has been imprisoned. Duterte said:
Hindi, it has nothing to do with the drug war. … Walang ginawa ‘yan [ICC]. Wala namang nakulong. Wala naman… basta puro demanda ‘yan. (No, it has nothing to do with the drug war. … It has [ICC] done nothing. No one was imprisoned. Nothing… It’s all just filing cases.)
What he left out
The ICC has actually convicted individuals and sentenced them to prison. According to the international tribunal’s website, four cases have resulted in prison sentences.
Essential context
The ICC has been examining Duterte’s war on drugs and its associated extrajudicial killings since 2017, prior to the Philippines’ withdrawal in 2018. The court has since been collecting documents and interviewing individuals involved in the drug war.
Under Article 127 of the Rome Statute, withdrawal takes effect one year after the United Nations receives the notification, making the Philippines’ withdrawal official in March 2019.
The same provision also indicates that the ICC retains jurisdiction over crimes committed while the Philippines was still a member state.
Read the full story on Philstar.com.
