In pursuing its own investigation, the ICC is going after top state officials who may be responsible for crimes against humanity but are not being investigated by the Philippines. This is where the principle of complementarity is violated and the justification for the resumption of the ICC’s drug war probe.
Among the five considerations of the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I were the pronouncements encouraging the killings under the drug war by former president Rodrigo Duterte and other officials and existence of drug watchlists.
It is part of the Philippines’ exercise of its sovereignty when it acceded to the Rome Statute in November 2011, hence binding the country to the treaty provisions from that date until its withdrawal on Mar. 16, 2019.
Article 127, paragraph 2 of the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC, states that a country that has withdrawn is not cleared of its obligations for incidents that occurred during its membership. The Philippines officially became a member of the ICC in November 2011, thus binding the country to the treaty’s provisions until its official withdrawal on March 17, 2019.
According to the World Bank, indicators of economic recovery include a rebounding GDP, decreasing unemployment rate and stabilizing inflation rate. The Philippines does not lead the Asia-Pacific region in any of these indicators.
