Duterte dares ICC to come to the Philippines and investigate him
Former President Rodrigo Duterte called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators to come to the Philippines ''tomorrow'' to look into the war on drugs, where thousands were reportedly killed.
"I'm asking the ICC to hurry up, and if possible to come here and start the investigation tomorrow. This is has been hanging for so many years," he told the members of the House Quad Committee during a hearing on Wednesday.
"They might not be able to investigate me if I die, so I am asking the ICC through you to come here tomorrow and start the investigation and if I am found guilty I will go to prison and rot there for all time," he added.
Following Duterte's statement, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said that "if the former President desires to surrender himself to the jurisdiction of the ICC, the government will neither object to it nor move to block the fulfillment of his desire."
"But if the ICC refers the process to Interpol, which may then transmit a red notice to the Philippine authorities, the government will feel obliged to consider the red notice as a request to be honored, in which case the domestic law enforcement agencies shall be bound to accord full cooperation to Interpol, pursuant to established protocols," he added.
On January 26, 2023, a pre-trial chamber of the ICC authorized its prosecutor to resume his investigation on alleged crimes committed from November 2011 to June 2016 while Duterte was its mayor as well as in other parts of the country during his presidency up until March 16, 2019, a day before the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC’s founding treaty took effect.
However, Duterte later said he will kick the ICC once they come here for him or if someone will sponsor his fare going to The Hague, in Netherlands, he will do so.
"Give me money and I will be the one who will go to ICC for investigation. They are taking so long. Hurry up because I am old, if I die you might miss the pleasure of seeing me standing before a court and hearing the judgement," he said.
"Yes, but if they come here I will kick them... if I go there I will also kick them," he added.
Duterte stressed that the "ICC does not scare" him a bit.
"They can come here anytime. I supposed that you would want to maybe make it easy for them to visit and start the investigation. I would welcome that, we are not hiding... I did it for my country and for the young people because of drugs, no excuses, no apology. If I go to hell, so be it," he said. Robina Asido/DMS
