‘don’t need foreigners to investigate killings’

Philippines, (rt.com), 15 June 2021 -President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman says the Philippines won’t cooperate with a planned International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into the thousands of deaths that took place during Duterte’s war on drugs.   

Speaking on Tuesday, the president’s spokesman, Harry Roque, dismissed the requirement for foreign intervention into the deaths during the nation’s war on drugs.   

“We do not need foreigners to investigate killings in the drug war because the legal system is working in the Philippines,” Roque stated. He claimed that the ICC launching a probe into the killings would be “legally erroneous” and was “politically motivated.”   

Roque stated that they would not participate as they are no longer members of the ICC, after President Duterte tore up their membership in 2018 after the Netherlands-based court opened an inquiry into crimes against humanity committed during the leader’s crackdown on narcotics.