De Lima seeks furlough to join ICC withdrawal arguments

Sen. Leila de Lima yesterday sought furlough from detention as she asked the Supreme Court (SC) to allow her to participate in the oral arguments on petitions challenging the administration’s withdrawal of the country’s membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In a four-page motion, De Lima asked the high court to al- low her temporary release from the Philippine National Police custodial center to personally argue the petition she filed with five other opposition senators.

The senator, who has been detained since February last year on drug charges, invoked the Rules of Court that “allow a litigant to personally prosecute his or her case.”

She cited the case of Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, who appeared as petitioner during the oral arguments for an earlier petition questioning the second extension of martial law in Mindanao.

“This Honorable Court is respectfully asked to take judicial notice of its practice of permitting members of Congress to appear before it and argue their cases,” said De Lima, who has been tapped by opposition senators to be the lead counsel in the ICC case.

De Lima was joined by minority Sens. Francis Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, Franklin Drilon, Antonio Trillanes IV and Risa Hontiveros in filing the petition seeking to compel the government to revoke the withdrawal of the Philippine government’s signature from the Rome Statute.

A similar petition filed by the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC) led by former Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta Rosales was consolidated with the case.

The high court has ordered the respondents –Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Ambassador Teodoro Locsin Jr. – to answer the petition through the office of the solicitor general.

It also moved the date of oral arguments from July 24 to Aug. 7 to give both parties adequate time to prepare.

The petitioners said the withdrawal from the ICC violated the Constitution, which requires ratification of treaties and international agreements by the Senate.

They cited a provision in the 1987 Constitution, which states that entering into a treaty or international agreement requires participation of Congress through concurrence of at least two-thirds of all members of the Senate.