MANILA, The Philippines

The Philippines "has no intention" to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC), President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Monday.

Marcos told reporters that he discussed the issue with the top legal executives, including Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and presidential legal adviser Juan Ponce Enrile last week.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte pulled the Philippines out of the Rome Statute, the founding agreement of the ICC, in March 2018 after the court launched a preliminary probe into his drugs crackdown.

The ICC was established in Rome with the decisions taken and the accepted status at the conference convened by the UN's initiative between June 15 - July 17, 1998. Headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, the court examines allegations such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

* Writing by Gozde Bayar