MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday maintained that he will not invite investigators from the International Criminal Court to the Philippines, saying that his administration does “not play politics with jurisdiction and sovereignty.”

The issue was brought up during Marcos Jr.’s interview with Australian broadcaster ABC, where he was asked if he intends to invite the ICC to the Philippines to investigate the previous administration’s war on drugs after “some breakdown” in his relationship with former President Rodrigo Duterte.

“No. That would be a political move and what we are, we do not play politics with jurisdiction and sovereignty,” the Philippine president said.

Cracks in the alliance between Marcos Jr. and the Duterte family began to show in late January, when the former President accused him of using illegal drugs as reports of the possible entry of ICC investigators swirled.

Duterte’s son, Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, had also called for Marcos Jr.’s resignation.

These political developments will not change the Philippines’ stance on the ICC issue, Marcos Jr. said.

“The position that we've taken is that we do not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC,” he said.

“We view it as a threat to sovereignty, simply because the ICC was formed to conduct, to provide justice to areas where there is no, there is no judiciary, where there is no court system, where there is no police, where there is no peace and order and that's not the Philippines,” he said.

“The Philippines, as I said, have a functioning police force. We have a functioning judiciary, and it is their responsibility to take care of that,” he said.

In 2019, Duterte pulled out the Philippines from the ICC after the international body began looking into alleged human rights violations committed by government authorities in enforcing hi war on drugs.

The ICC, however, argued that it still had jurisdiction over the drug war cases as these were committed while the Philippines was still a member of the international body.

Marcos Jr. said that so far, the Philippines has “made a great deal of progress” in its campaign against illegal drugs.

“Many policemen have already been removed from service because they've been found to be liable, cases have been filed. Many are already in jail,” he said.

“We try to go back to the families of those [drug war victims] and see what we can do to make things right for them,” he said.

The current Philippine administrations is “not interested in a small-time addicts,” Marcos Jr. said.

“You take them to the hospital, you take them to rehab,” he said.

“We have taken enforcement as far as we can, and it only gets you so far,” he added.