ADMINISTRATION officials try to help President Rodrigo Duterte evade the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by foisting the principle of complementarity. This means the ICC will not exercise jurisdiction over the perpetrators of covered offenses, like crimes against humanity and massive extrajudicial killings (EJKs), if the country's domestic authorities, principally the courts, are functioning and the alleged offenders are prosecuted impartially and independently.

Complementarity is recognized in the Preamble of the Rome Statute which provides that the 'International Criminal Court established under this Statute shall be complementary to national criminal jurisdictions,' which Article 1 of the Rome Statute reiterates. Consequently, the ICC defers to the national criminal jurisdictions, in warranted instances, to preclude overlapping and respect the national forum.