Marcos: PH will not serve arrest warrant from ICC vs. ex-Pres. Duterte

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Monday explicitly stated that his government will not serve any arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) against former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The President made the remark as he maintained that ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines.

"We don't recognize the warrant  that they will send to us...That's a no," Marcos said when asked if the government would hand over an arrest warrant to his predecessor in case the ICC issues one.

"We are well within international law when we take the position of not recognizing the jurisdiction of ICC in the Philippines," he noted, reiterating that only countries with no functioning judicial and law enforcement system need the ICC's intervention.

The President also said in February last year that he would not cooperate with the ICC investigation. He also said that he considers the ICC a threat to Philippine sovereignty.

It was Duterte who pulled the Philippines out of the Hague-based ICC's Rome Statute in 2018, with the withdrawal taking effect in 2019, after the tribunal began a preliminary probe into his administration's drug war.

More than 6,000 people were killed in Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign, but rights groups say that up to 30,000 may have been killed.—AOL/RF. GMA Integrated News