Duterte insists ICC has no power over him

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the 2018 General Assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) at the Manila Hotel in the City of Manila on March 20, 2018. Also in the photo are Presidential Spokesperson Atty. Harry Roque and Department of Interior and Local Government Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Año. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

The President maintained that the International Criminal Court (ICC) can no longer go after him because the treaty behind its creation was not published on the Official Gazette.

President Rodrigo Duterte during his speech in General Assembly of the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) on March 20 reiterated his concern with the ICC’s investigation through a barrage of questions.

“Based on what? Why are you here? Why are you f*cking in my country? What’s your power? What vests you? The treaty? The treaty was not published. When it is not published, it is as if there is not law at all,” Duterte said.

This was not the first time for the President to bring up such reason, as he already wrote this particular concern last week in his written statement to withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

(Read: Duterte withdraws PH from ICC)

“A penal law to be enforceable must be effective. In our jurisdiction, it must be published in the Official Gazette within a certain period of time from its signing into law. An unenforceable law cannot vest jurisdiction on courts to try a charged person. The courts must first acquire jurisdiction over the subject matter and over the person of a defendant,” Duterte wrote in defense.

In his speech, Duterte added that the word treaty is a cooperation of the niceties of life and mutual assistance, but said that reading the Rome Statute, it “talks only of a creation of an international court.”

“Kayong mga abogado (You lawyers), it’s a leading case lalo na (especially) if it is a criminal measure which has penal sanctions, it should be published in the Official Gazette, that is the official publication, if you fail to do that there is no law at all because then you cannot claim that ignorance of the law excuses no one,” the President, who is also a lawyer said.

“So when are you excused because of your ignorance? It is when it published in the Gazette, the Official Gazette that you are no put on notice constructively. Kasi (Because) we cannot do it every person, may batas ito (it has a ruling). So by publishing it in the Official Gazette, it now becomes a law,” he added.