Marcos weighing public sentiment on PH return to ICC – Palace

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is taking public sentiment into account regarding the Philippines’ possible return to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a Palace official said Tuesday.



This was according to Palace Press Officer Claire Castro, who was responding to a question on whether a recent survey—showing that the majority of Filipinos support rejoining the ICC—could influence Marcos' openness to being a member of the international tribunal again.

READ: Majority of Filipinos support PH rejoining ICC, survey says

“We haven't discussed that yet, and the President hasn't mentioned it either,” she said in Filipino.

“But sentiments like these from our fellow citizens are being heard by the President. So let's just wait and see in the coming days what the President's position will be regarding rejoining the ICC,” Castro added mostly in Filipino.

An OCTA Research survey conducted from April 20 to 24 revealed that 57 percent of Filipinos support the country’s return to the ICC.

Meanwhile, 37 percent said they were opposed to it, while 6 percent were undecided.



The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 total respondents ages 18 and above.

It had a margin of error of ±3 percent at a 95 percent confidence.

Castro, at a briefing last June 19, also said Marcos is open to discussions on the Philippines rejoining the ICC.

READ: Will Philippines rejoin ICC? Marcos ‘is open to it,’ says Palace

“He [Marcos] is open to it. The last time we spoke—since we’ve talked about this before—he said he was open to it,” she said.

As of now, Marcos has yet to issue an official statement on the matter.

On March 17, 2018, then President Rodrigo Duterte withdrew from the Rome Statute – the treaty that established the ICC. The withdrawal took effect after a year.

Despite Duterte’s withdrawal, the ICC retained jurisdiction over alleged crimes in the Philippines which reportedly happened from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019, covering the period when the country was still a member.

The Duterte administration at that time launched a war against illegal drugs. /jpv

(2025/07/01-14:32)