The Department of Foreign Affairs refused to invite International Criminal Court officials to a hearing defending ex-President Duterte due to disengagement from the ICC. However, Senate minority bloc launched an investigation into the alleged “state-sponsored” sugar smuggling.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in the Philippines has refused to accommodate a request by the Senate panel to invite officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to a hearing on resolutions defending former president Rodrigo Duterte from investigation by the ICC. The DFA cited comments made by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s that the country was disengaging from any contact with the ICC. The Senate committee was set to tackle the resolutions on 19 April, but the hearing was postponed. The Senate minority bloc is calling on the Senate blue ribbon committee to investigate alleged irregular sugar importation in February 2022, involving 260 20-foot containers of sugar from Thailand. Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban claimed that the allocation was “per instruction of Executive Secretary [Lucas] Bersamin”. This is not the first time that the Senate blue ribbon committee has been called to investigate an issue related to sugar importation. In August 2022, the committee investigated the alleged unauthorized issuance of Sugar Order No. 4, which would have allowed the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar.