When former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila and transferred to The Hague to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity, his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jnr explained the handover as compliance with the country’s commitments to Interpol.
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The international police organisation had indeed requested cooperation in executing the ICC’s arrest warrant. But it was notable that Manila premised its justification on the Philippines’ obligation to Interpol rather than to the ICC.
Under Duterte, the Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute, the treaty upon which the ICC was founded. However, the ICC retains jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Philippines while the state was still party to the Rome Statute.
Consequently, the country’s Department of Justice has found itself entangled in legal gymnastics as the polemics of domestic politics in the Philippines jostles with attempts at securing justice. Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla even confusingly defended the arrest on grounds of “international humanitarian law”, a term usually used in reference to the laws of armed conflict.
This uncomfortable juncture between domestic politics and international justice in the Philippines is reminiscent of Malaysia’s own short-lived dalliance with the ICC six years ago. On March 4, 2019, Putrajaya signed the Rome Statute and deposited it with the United Nations secretary general that same day. On April 5 of that year, the government rescinded its accession and, by the end of the month, Malaysia was confirmed by the United Nations to have officially withdrawn from the treaty.
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Malaysia’s commitment to the ICC, which dated back to 1998 when the initial diplomatic agreement to establish the court was signed, was ultimately doomed by contentious internal politics. The government had underestimated public resistance on the matter, and misinformation on the court’s reach and jurisdiction inevitably entangled the “three Rs” of Malaysia’s domestic sensitivities – race, religion and royalty.