FACT CHECK: The Marcos administration’s evolving stance on allowing ICC investigators

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said on July 29 that the Philippine government will “not get in the way” of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) interview of the five former and current high-ranking police officials tagged as suspects in the Duterte administration’s drug war.

This was in reaction to a document shared by former senator Antonio Trillanes IV which named the five officials, including Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, as suspects that the ICC Office of the Prosecutor believes to “have committed crimes within [its] jurisdiction.”

Guevarra’s July statement is just one of varied statements from top officials in the Marcos Cabinet on the administration’s stand on the ICC probe. While some officials maintain that the ICC has “no jurisdiction” to investigate Duterte’s drug war following the country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute, others gave confusing statements.

Here’s how they mulled over the issue in the past two years:

(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)