Phl ready to cooperate with Interpol – Palace

No gov't plan for Phl's return to ICC

- By ALEXIS ROMERO

Although there are no talks yet on the Philippines rejoining the International Criminal Court, the government is ready to cooperate with the Interpol if the ICC issues arrest warrants for Senators Bong Go and Ronald dela Rosa and former officials named as co-perpetrators in the previous administration's drug war.

Palace press officer Claire Castro said Philippine law was followed and the government coordinated with the Interpol in the case of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who was arrested and brought to The Hague last year over alleged crimes against humanity.

"It happened before and that's what will happen now," Castro said at a press briefing when asked if the Philippines would cooperate with the Interpol in case the ICC would order the arrest of the co-perpetrators.

"If a warrant of arrest is issued, it has to be implemented. On whether they would be monitored closely, for now there is no reason to do so because the government has not received any warrant of arrest," she added.

Late last week, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor named Go, Dela Rosa and six other persons as co-perpetrators of Duterte's controversial crackdown on drugs, which left more than 6,000 suspects dead.

According to the prosecution, the former president and his co-perpetrators "shared a common plan or agreement to neutralize alleged criminals in the Philippines," including those alleged to be linked with the use, sale and production of narcotics through violent crimes.

Also named as drug war co-perpetrators were former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, the late former Philippine National Police chief Camilo Cascolan, former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde, former National Bureau of Investigation chief Dante Gierran, former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Isidro Lapeña and former Davao City police chief Vicente Danao.