MANILA – Another petition urged the Supreme Court to declare President Rodrigo Duterte’s Notice of Withdrawal from the Rome Statute void.
The Rome Statute is the treaty that created the International Criminal Court, which began a preliminary examination into the allegation that Duterte committed international crimes in his administration’s “war on drugs.”
The Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC) told the high court the Notice was submitted to the United Nations without concurrence by the Senate.
The Supreme Court should also order Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea – through the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Mission to the UN – to recall the Notice of Withdrawal, the PCICC said in its petition filed Wednesday.
“The President’s unilateral edict withdrawing the membership of the Philippines in the ICC without benefit of parliamentary concurrence or approval, as required under the 1987 Charter, denies Filipinos their right to redress in the event of state default from its obligations, in particular as these pertain to the commission of the most heinous international crimes against its own citizens,” the PCICC said.
This was the second petition filed before the Supreme Court contesting the withdrawal from the ICC.
The first was filed by opposition senators Francis Pangilinan, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Franklin Drilon, Antonio Trillanes IV, Risa Hontiveros, and Leila de Lima.
The Supreme Court has scheduled an oral argument on July 24.
On March 12 Duterte declared the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute due to “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks” against him and his administration.
The Rome Statute was created to “put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus to contribute to the prevention of such crimes.” The ICC was established the same day the treaty was entered into force on July 1, 2002.
Before Duterte announced the Philippines’ withdrawal, Burundi, Gambia and South Africa attempted to leave the ICC.
Gambia and South Africa later retracted their plan but Burundi went through with the proceedings and left the court on Oct. 27 last year./PN
