Peru-bound President Rodrigo Duterte in a pre-departure briefing on Thusday said that he would have no second thoughts joining China and Russia once they create a “new order.”
“I will be the first to join if China and Russia would decide to create a new order,” Duterte said, adding that the Philippines might also decide to leave United Nations (UN).
He explained that there used to be a “League of Nations” before as the predecessor of UN.
“Nothing happened – there is still war, United Nations, walang nagawa,” he said.
Duterte also warned that the Philippines might follow Russia’s lead and withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“I might follow their [Russia] lead. Why? These people only pick on small countries like us,” he said.
Duterte added that the ICC lets other countries get away with bombings that affect thousands of women and children in Syria and Iraq.
“That’s out lesson – just because it is America, it does not mean that it is good,” he said.
Moscow on Wednesday withdrew its signature from the founding statute of the ICC, saying the global court “did not live up to the hopes associated with it and did not become truly independent.”
It can also be recalled that CC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda expressed his deep concern over extra-judicial killings (EJKs) under Duterte’s administration as well as the statements that seemed to condone such killings.
“Let me be clear – Any person in the Philippines who incites or engages in acts of mass violence including by ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC is potentially liable for prosecution before the Court,” Bensouda said.
