Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. revealed that it was his personal decision—not former President Rodrigo Duterte’s—to withdraw the Philippines from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“President Duterte had no part in my withdrawal of the Philippines from the ICC… I sent the letter of withdrawal,” Locsin stated in a Facebook post on October 14.
According to Locsin, he took the step because he believed the country’s membership in the ICC could harm its relations with the United States, which he described as the Philippines’ only military ally.
He recalled that the Senate’s move to join the ICC was a “mistaken gesture of compassion” for the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, who was battling cancer at the time. Santiago had hoped for a position at the ICC, but she was not chosen.
Locsin said the formal withdrawal occurred while he served as the Philippines’ permanent representative to the United Nations and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano headed the Department of Foreign Affairs. Two letters of withdrawal were sent to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“If, as in My Lai, an atrocity was brought before the ICC, we would have to surrender the American accused of it, my American friends told me. So I withdrew us and Allan backed me,” he explained.
He added that withdrawal “in every sense of the word and in any context does not require consent,” noting that the decision came a year after the government’s anti-drug campaign had already begun.
