CAUAYAN CITY -- If the International Criminal Court (ICC) will declare him guilty of crimes against humanity due to the series of drug-related killings, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would be "glad to go" and will even be the one to put the rope around his neck.
Speaking before Isabela officials and villagers during the campaign rally of PDP-Laban senatorial candidates at the Francisco L. Dy Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday evening here, Duterte said, "For all the things that I have said, ordered and done, I am willing to put (the rope around) my neck about this".
Directly addressing the ICC, Duterte said: "You can never acquire jurisdiction over my person. Not in a million years."
"You know in this country, we have rules to follow. The Constitution gives us the right, everyone of us, due process of law," he added.
Duterte, who said last year that he would be ready to die by firing squad, earlier ordered the withdrawal of the Philippines' membership from the ICC. The withdrawal will take effect on March 17.
The ICC membership is flawed, he pointed out, as the treaty, which was ratified during the time of former President Joseph Estrada, was not returned to the Office of the President and should have published it on the Official Gazette.
"It is mandatory," the President noted, adding that the treaty was directly sent and appended to the Rome Agreement.
"If you do not publish it, there is no law at all. It is as if there is nothing in the books of the government that will bind me to a criminal case," Duterte said.
"So no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Ngayon kukunin ko ‘yan, ilagay ko dito sa akin. Was I given due process? None. Why? You will prosecute me in a law that was not published," he said.
Saying that he is not defensive at all, the President dared the ICC to try him for the charges being thrown against him. (PNA)
