{"id":159783,"date":"2018-04-13T06:23:45","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T10:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=159783"},"modified":"2018-04-13T06:23:45","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T10:23:45","slug":"duterte-to-arrest-icc-prober-if-she-sets-foot-in-ph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/13\/duterte-to-arrest-icc-prober-if-she-sets-foot-in-ph\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte to arrest ICC prober if she sets foot in PH"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to bar International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda if she visits the Philippines to conduct an inquiry into his administration\u2019s war on drugs. (Photo<\/a> by Heinrich-B\u00f6ll-Stiftung\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to bar International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda if she visits the Philippines to conduct an inquiry into his administration\u2019s war on drugs.<\/p>\n

“You cannot exercise any proceedings here without basis. That is illegal and I will arrest you,” he warned Bensouda during a press conference in Davao City on Friday, April 13, upon his arrival from a working visit to China and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

The President maintained that the tribunal has no jurisdiction to conduct preliminary investigation into the crimes allegedly committed under Duterte\u2019s anti-illegal drug campaign as the Philippines \u201cwas never a member of the ICC.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that the country\u2019s membership in the Rome Statute\u2014the treaty that established the court\u2014did not take effect as it was not published in the Official Gazette or any newspaper of general circulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be a publication. If there is no publication, it is as if there is no law at all,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaya ikaw<\/em> (That\u2019s why, you) Ms. Fatou, \u2018wag kang pumunta dito<\/em> (Don\u2019t come here) because I will bar you,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Reiterating his arguments against the ICC, Duterte said he is not afraid of the tribunal.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot because I am afraid of you, I said, because you will never have jurisdiction over my person, not in a million years. What is your authority now? If we are not members of the treaty, why are you f****** in this country?\u201d the President emphasized.<\/p>\n

The Philippines, through Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Teodoro Locsin Jr., formally notified the UN of its withdrawal from the ICC on March 16.<\/p>\n

In withdrawing the country\u2019s membership in the tribunal, Duterte cited \u201cbaseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks\u201d against him by UN officials and the alleged attempt of Bensouda to place him under the ICC\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier directed government forces not to answer questions coming from the UN rapporteurs who seek to investigate the situation of human rights under his administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would we be answering \u2014\u00a0Bakit sino sila<\/em>\u00a0(Who are they)?\u00a0And who are you to interfere in the way I would run my country? You know very well that we are being swallowed by drugs,\u201d the Chief Executive on March 1 said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to bar International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda if she visits the Philippines to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":159814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[12478,13135],"class_list":["post-159783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-fatou-bensouda","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-joanna-belle-deala","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}