PHILIPPINES WANTS TO QUIT THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

The Philippines has given official notice to the United Nations that it will exit the treaty underpinning the International Criminal Court, which is looking into President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug war, the government said Friday.

The move comes two days after Duterte announced his nation would quit the court over its preliminary inquiry launched last month into allegations his bloody crackdown on narcotics amounts to crimes against humanity.

Philippine police say they have killed roughly 4,000 suspects who fought back during arrest, but rights groups allege the actual number is three times higher and accuse the authorities of murder.

On Thursday the Philippines said in a letter to the UN, which oversaw negotiations to found the court, that it was pulling out of the Rome Statute.

“The decision to withdraw is the Philippines’ principled stand against those who would politicise and weaponise human rights,” the letter said.

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, speaking from Manila, said the Philippines was quitting due to “the well-orchestrated campaign to mislead the international community, to crucify President Duterte by distorting the human rights situation in the country”.

Officially quitting the court requires a year’s notice and experts say pulling out does not preclude an investigation of the killings, which have drawn international concern.

The Philippines, under previous President Benigno Aquino, ratified in 2011 the Rome Statute which underpins the ICC, giving the tribunal authority to investigate crimes on its soil.

Duterte, who is buoyed by high popularity ratings at home, has fiercely defended the drug war as a battle to bring safety to the nation’s 100 million people.

He has frequently urged authorities to kill drug suspects while promising to protect police from legal sanction.