Dwayne Pelagio

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III urged President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to consider going back to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Photos Courtesy of Anadolu/Senate of the Philippines.

“Let us rejoin the ICC. We should treat this as our 'insurance policy' just in case 'our system' fails us and we get to elect an abusive, tyrannical, heartless leader, and our justice system fails us too,” Pimentel said in his speech during a foreign policy address at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Nov. 8. 

Pimentel also pointed out in his speech that rejoining the ICC is an executive action and that the ball is in the president’s court.

The senator noted that leaving the ICC was easier than reviving the country’s membership in the international tribunal.

He added that the approval of two-thirds of the Senate was needed to form an international treaty, pointing out the fact that the president must ask the upper chamber’s ratification to join the ICC.

“Joining a treaty will be more difficult. A positive presidential action is needed,” Pimentel said in his speech.

When asked about his previous stance of supporting former president Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to withdraw from the ICC, the senator answered that the House quad comm hearings on the extrajudicial killings was an “eye-opener” for the government and the public.

Duterte ordered the country’s withdrawal from the Rome statute in March 2018 after ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced that she would start a preliminary investigation over the complaints filed against him regarding the administration’s war on drugs.