Duterte again says he will not face tribunal ‘of whites’

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday reiterated he will not face a tribunal "of whites" amid the International Criminal Court's move to investigate the alleged crimes against humanity in his administration's drug war.

"I will not, for the life of me, face a tribunal tapos with the judges there are all whites. Hindi ako haharap ng tribunal ng mga puti," Duterte said in his speech during the inspection of the General Santos City Airport Passenger Terminal Building.

"If I go to jail, it must be a sentence imposed by a Filipino judge. I would welcome a prosecutor who is a Filipino to indict me pero kung sabihin na bigyan mo ko ng puti, kalokohan 'yan," he added. "Kailan pa ba tayo pumayag na puti ang magdesisiyon? Kalokohan 'yan." [When have we allowed white people to decide? That's a joke.]

This is something he has alleged before about the ICC. The international tribunal, which has temporarily suspended its Philippine drug war investigation, has a current slate of 18 full-time judges, only some of whom appear to be white.

The current Prosecutor, Karim Khan, is Pakistani-British, while former Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who urged the investigation into the Duterte administration's anti-drugs campaign, is Gambian.

The ICC's current slate of judges. Photo: ICC

Khan, now assigned to look into the drug war, bared that they would temporarily halt the probe as they assessed the Philippine government's request to defer the investigation.

The Philippine government's request for a deferral cited the Department of Justice's referral of 52 cases, in which the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service found administrative liability on the part of the concerned personnel, to the National Bureau of Investigation.—LDF/BM, GMA News