2nd petition filed with SC challenges withdrawal of PH from Int’l Court
A second petition was filed with the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday challenging the constitutionality of President Duterte’s notice of withdrawal of the Philippines’ membership in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC), led by former Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta Rosales, told the SC the withdrawal violated the Constitution which requires the ratification of treaties and international agreements by the Senate.
The first petition was filed last month by Senators Francis Pangilinan, Franklin Drilon, Paolo Benigno Aquino, Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros, and Antonio Trillanes IV.
They said the President’s withdrawal from the ICC is invalid as it has no concurrence from at least twothirds of the 24-member Senate.
They wanted the SC to compel the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations to notify the United Nations SecretaryGeneral of the revocation of the notice of withdrawal from the ICC it received on March 17, 2018.
They said the Rome Statute ICC was validly entered into by the Philippine government and has the same status as a law enacted by Congress and, thus, the withdrawal must need the approval of Congress.
Acting on the first petition, the SC required Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to answer the petition in a non-extendible period of 10 days from receipt of notice and ordered the holding of oral arguments on July 24.
It is expected that the PCICC’s petition would be consolidated with the first petition.
“The President gravely abused his discretion in an act tantamount to an absence or a lack of jurisdiction, when he unilaterally decided to withdraw the membership of the Philippines from the International Criminal Court, as his act violated the Constitutional system of checks and balances in treaty making under Art. VII, Sec. 21 of the 1987 Charter, which prescribes a shared duty towards that end between the Executive and the Legislative branches of government,” PCICC’s petition stated.
Earlier, the Philippine government – in a diplomatic note to the United Nations secretary general – said “the decision to withdraw is the Philippines’ principled stand against those who politicize and weaponize human rights, even as its independent and well-functioning organs and agencies continue to exercise jurisdiction over complaints, issues, problems and concerns arising from its efforts to protect the people.”
On March 14, 2018, the President announced the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC citing “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks” against him and his administration.
The President defended his decision to take back the Philippines’ ratification of the Rome Statute as he noted that the treaty is not a law since it was not published in the Official Gazette when the Philippines ratified it in August 2011.