The Philippine government will be appealing the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to resume the probe on the war on drugs of the Duterte administration.
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said that the Philippines will raise an appeal to the ICC Appeals Chamber.
The ICC pre-trial chamber said that it “is not satisfied that the Philippines is undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the court’s investigations.”
“While we have not received an official copy of this resolution, it is our intention to exhaust our legal remedies, more particularly elevating the matter to the ICC appeals chamber,” Guevarra told reporters on Friday.
“We wish to emphasize that our own domestic investigative and judicial processes should take precedence, and we can show that despite structural and resource limitations in our legal system, it is still a well-functioning system that yields positive results in its own time,” he added.
The Philippine government previously said that there is no need for an ICC probe over issues of international tribunal jurisdiction.
Senator Ronald Bato Dela Rosa and among the respondents in the investigation questioned the persistence of the ICC.
“May motive behind ito. May ibang agenda kung bakit insisting. Merong nagtutulak sa kanila na mag-imbestiga. Baka gustong ibalik ang problema ng droga sa bansa,” he said.
“Hindi nga sila pinapapasok dito para mag-conduct ng imbestigasyon. Go ahead kung anong gusto nilang gawin. Nakakasawa na,” Dela Rosa added.
