By Brian Jules Campued
More than half or about 55% of Filipinos were still uncertain on whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) would be able to conduct an impartial probe into the alleged drug-related killings during the Duterte administration, latest survey results from the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed Tuesday.
Based on the Fourth Quarter 2023 Social Weather Report of the SWS, around 29% of adult Filipinos now have “much trust” regarding the ability of the ICC to lead a fair investigation compared to the 22% in March 2023 survey; while the percentage of those with “little trust” fell down to 16% from 22% in first quarter of 2023.
The percentage of those who were unsure hardly changed from 56% in March of last year.
“Compared to March 2023, the percentage of those who were unsure if the ICC would be able to conduct an impartial investigation into the drug-related killings during the Duterte administration stayed dominant in all areas: it hardly changed from 49% to 51% in Metro Manila and from 56% to 58% in Balance Luzon, while it fell from 52% to 46% in the Visayas and from 65% to 56% in Mindanao,” the SWS explained.
Meanwhile, those who agree that the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. should allow the ICC investigators in the country rose to 56% from 48% in March 2023. The survey also showed that 25% were undecided while 19% disagreed.
The SWS poll, which was conducted on Dec. 8-11, 2023, also found that 53% of the respondents agreed with the ICC probe, 26% were undecided, while 21% disagreed.
President Marcos remained firm on his stance that the ICC has no right to interfere in the Philippine justice system.
”It opens a Pandora’s Box. It’s still those questions of jurisdiction and sovereignty. I haven’t yet seen a sufficient answer for it. Until then, I do not recognize their jurisdiction in the Philippines,” Marcos told reporters in a media interview following an awards ceremony at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila on Tuesday.
The Chief Executive added that even if the international tribunal produces enough evidence to file a case against former President Rodrigo Duterte and other officials linked to the war on drugs, “they could not act upon it” in the country.
However, he clarified that he would not stop the ICC from entering the country to gather evidence since it is an “open country”.
“I don’t approve or deny it but you know, they haven’t done anything illegal. Once they do, of course, we will do something about it. But we are an open country, we are not a closed country,” the President stated.
The latest SWS survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 respondents aged 18 years old and above nationwide.
A similar poll conducted by OCTA Research, of which the results were released on Sunday, showed that a higher percentage of 59% of Filipinos agree that the Philippines should rejoin the ICC while 41% said it should not. – avds
