A YouTube video is claiming that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has shut down the International Criminal Court (ICC). This is a clickbait. Marcos has no power to shut down an international body such as the ICC.
The erroneous video was uploaded on Dec. 3, four days after two House panels adopted a resolution urging the government to cooperate with the ICC. It continued to draw comments until last week. It bore the headline:
“SENADO VIRAL NGAYON: ICC pinasara na Pres marcos DU30 ABSWELTO na/ ROMUALDEZ HONTIVEROS NA-SHOCKED (Viral now in the Senate: ICC closed by President Marcos. Duterte already acquitted/Romualdez, Hontiveros were shocked).”
Its thumbnail also carried photos of Marcos, former president Rodrigo Duterte, Speaker Martin Romualdez and Sen. Risa Hontiveros along with the text “OMG: PINASARA NA ANG ICC GINULAT NI PBBM VIRAL NGAYON SA SENADO. TINAPOS ANG ICC (The ICC has been closed down. PBBM shocked them, viral now in the Senate. Finished the ICC).”
While member-states may withdraw from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, none of its provisions grants any head of state the power to close the tribunal.
It is also not true that Duterte has been acquitted from any case related to his bloody anti-drug campaign.
The ICC is currently investigating alleged crimes against humanity linked to the drug war during Duterte’s presidency and the Davao Death Squad when he was mayor of Davao City, but it has yet to identify suspects nor issue summons against any individual named in probe documents submitted to the court.
(RELATED: VP Sara, 2 senators named in ICC probe documents)
The video is a clickbait that merely played an audio clip from a previously fact-checked blogger, claiming that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines since the country’s withdrawal from the tribunal in 2019.
But according to Paragraph 2, Article 127 of the Rome Statute, a state party is not exempt from its obligations for the duration of its membership even after it has withdrawn. Hence, the ICC retains jurisdiction over any crimes that occurred in the Philippines when it was still a state party from Nov. 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019.
In a 2021 ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed this obligation, saying that the country “remained covered and bound by the Rome Statute until March 17, 2019.”
The video emerged days after Marcos said that the government is studying the possibility of rejoining the ICC.
It collectively received 18,565 interactions after it was uploaded by YouTube channels BANAT KAPANIG TV and AI TOO KAYE that have been fact-checked for their previous erroneous claims.
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