SC upholds PH Rome Statute withdrawal

The Supreme Court on Tuesday junked  two petitions seeking to nullify President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to serve a notice of withdrawal of the country’s membership from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court.

In a unanimous decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the SC “dismissed the petitions questioning the unilateral withdrawal for being moot and academic.”

“The decision acknowledged that the President, as the primary architect of foreign policy, is subject to the Constitution and existing statute. Therefore, the power of the President to withdraw unilaterally can be limited by the conditions for concurrence by the Senate or when there is an existing law that authorizes the negotiation of a treaty or international agreement or when there is a statute that implements an existing treaty,” the high court said in a statement.

“The decision noted that in this case, there were provisions in a prior law, Republic Act No. 9851, which were amended by the Rome Statute,” the SC added.

RA 9851 penalizes crimes against international humanitarian law, genocide and other crimes against humanity. 

The high court said “the Judiciary has enough powers to protect human rights contrary to speculations raised by the petitioners.”

In March 2018, Duterte announced the country’s withdrawal from the ICC, citing “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks” against him and his administration.

In a diplomatic note to the United Nations Secretary General, the Philippines said that “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.”

This prompted Senators Leila de Lima, Francis Pangilinan, Franklin Drilon, Paolo Benigno Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, and Antonio Trillanes IV to file a petition questioning the constitutionality of the President’s action to withdraw from ICC.

The six senators said the President’s withdrawal from the ICC was invalid as it has no concurrence from at least two-thirds of the 24-member Senate.

Apart from the petition filed by the six senators, the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC) led by former Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta Rosales also filed a similar petition, arguing that “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.”