Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.
— Psalms 106:3


MAYPAJO, Caloocan City — The arrest of former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte (FPRRD) has drawn mixed emotions but a slight majority of Filipinos agreed with Vice President 'Inday' Sara Duterte-Carpio when she denounced the arrest of her father as a "blatant affront to our sovereignty."
According to Duterte’s eldest daughter,
"our own government has surrendered a Filipino citizen—even a former President at that—to foreign powers; this is . . . an insult to every Filipino who believes in our nation’s independence."
However, are these attacks on the ICC have basis? So, let us settle some misconceptions as there some who view the international court as undermining national sovereignty, has retroactive jurisdiction and is a tool for political agendas.
The truth is that the ICC operates under the principle of complementarity, only investigating crimes if states are unwilling or unable to do so. Its jurisdiction is limited to crimes committed after the Rome Statute's entry into force, and its actions are guided by international law, not political considerations.
To debunk the myth that the ICC undermines national sovereignty, again we reiterate that it operates under the principle of complementarity, meaning it can only investigate and prosecute crimes if the state concerned is unwilling or unable to do so itself. In addition, national criminal justice systems retain primary responsibility for trying perpetrators of the most serious crimes, so the ICC serves only as a court of last resort, intervening only when states fail to act in good faith.
Secondly, to claim that the ICC has retroactive jurisdiction is incorrect as its jurisdiction is limited to crimes committed after the Rome Statute, its founding treaty, entered into force on July 1, 2002. Ithis means that the ICC cannot investigate or prosecute crimes that occurred before this date.
Finally, there is an opinion that the ICC is a tool for political agendas or is biased against certain countries. The truth of the matter is that the ICC's actions are guided by international law and its mandate to address the most serious crimes of international concern: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. To explain, the ICC is an independent court and its investigations and prosecutions are based on evidence and the law, not political considerations.

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