The Philippines’ independent foreign policy is working.
Last week President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has decided to withdraw the country’s
membership from the Rome Statute that establishes the International Criminal Court (ICC). The International
Criminal Court (ICC) as alleged by the President has meddled itself in a purely
internal matter and the Philippines withdrawal has been taken as ICC’s losing
credibility and highlights its failure and gross bias against emerging
countries in the world.
Duterte from the
start of his administration has steered his foreign policy that can be taken
simply as “ friend to everybody, enemy to no one”, and it seems we are having
new unlikely allies in the international front.
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| Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev (photo credit to owner) |
Russia through Russian
Ambassador to the Philippines Igor Khovaev said that the Russian Federation “respects”
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte's decision to withdraw the country from the
International Criminal Court.
"We fully
understand his concern, we fully understand the reasons which became the basis
for taking such a decision," he said during a press conference at his
residence in the city of Makati.
Russia is not a
member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it signed the Rome Statute
but it was never ratified by them due to the court's "highly
politicized" activities and possibility that it may be used as an
"instrument" to pressure its member states, the Ambassador Khovaev stressed.
In our
assessment, the ICC is not a judicial board," he pointed out.
"All its
activities are highly politicized and it's used as an instrument to put
political pressure on selective governments, on selective countries so we
cannot accept such an approach that's why my country decided to withdraw from
their Rome Statute," he said.
The Russian
ambassador says that Russia “understands” why Manila had to withdraw from the
Rome Statute.
"I fully
understand why your country took the same decision, but as I have just
explained, it's up to the Philippine society to make comments, to make
assessment of this step, of this decision, as for us, we deeply respect
it." *
Philippine
Permanent Representative to the UN Teodoro Locsin Jr. handed over to Maria
Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, the Chef de Cabinet of UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres a note verbale last March 15, 2018, which is the official serving of
notice to the United Nations that the Philippines has decided to withdraw its
membership from the Rome Statute.
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