Senate OKs Rome Statute on int’l court

The Senate has approved on third and final reading a resolution concurring in the ratification of the Rome Statute paving the way for the country’s membership in the International Criminal Court that tries war crimes and other atrocities.

Seventeen senators voted in favor of concurrence while Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile was the lone dissenter.

President Aquino endorsed the Rome Statute of the ICC last Feb. 28.

Under the treaty, the ICC can intervene when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice for the core crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or crimes of aggression.

The Philippines was one of the countries that drafted the treaty in 1998.

In a debate held last week, Enrile and Sen. Joker Arroyo expressed hesitance to support the resolution of concurrence after noting that the US had refused to concur with the same until now since it does not want its soldiers to fall under the jurisdiction of foreign courts in case they commit violations.

Sen. Miriam Santiago, the resolution’s sponsor, explained that if a state becomes a party to the Rome Statute, “any past leader could be investigated and prosecuted if he commits a core crime, particularly if he is the head of state, member of the national legislature, or government official at a similarly high level.”

“If the state is already investigating or prosecuting its own head of state or similar official, the court will not intervene. But if the state is unwilling or unable to prosecute, then the court will try the case in The Hague,” Santiago clarified.