A resolution signed by 14 senators was filed on Monday stating that Senate approval is needed whenever a treaty and international agreement that the chamber concurred in will be abrogated or terminated.
The resolution was filed as the Senate justice committee halted hearings on the revival of the death penalty in the country pending the issuance of an opinion from the justice department on whether the move would contravene Philippine commitments under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the 2nd Optional Protocol.
These conventions—approved by the Senate—obligates the country not to impose the death penalty.
Resolution No. 289 expresses the sense of the Senate “that termination of, or withdrawal from, treaties and international agreements concurred in by the Senate shall be valid and effective only upon concurrence by the Senate.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon, principal author of the measure, told reporters that he and his colleagues were just “formalizing” the resolution approving the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank treaty and included this provision that any withdrawal needed Senate concurrence.
“A treaty that is approved by the Senate becomes part of the law of the land, and any repeal of any treaty by a withdrawal should also require the concurrence of the Senate,” he said.
Asked whether the resolution had any implication in the ongoing Senate debate on the revival of the death penalty, Drilon said: “That is a legal position that the 14 senators have taken—that any withdrawal from any treaty should require the concurrence of the Senate. But it is argued by those who oppose the death penalty that in fact, the Philippines cannot withdraw from the Second Protocol.”
During last week’s Senate hearing, Drilon pointed out that lawyers declared that the 2nd Optional Protocol “did not provide for any withdrawal or derogation mechanism, which means the party cannot reinstate the death penalty without violating the law.”