SC dismisses plea seeking to declare as invalid PH’s withdrawal from ICC 

BASTION OF RIGHTS The Supreme Court building in Ermita, Manila. INQUIRER file photo / EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court dismissed the petitions that sought to declare as invalid the Philippine government’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In a unanimous decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition 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,” read the statement issued by the high court’s Public Information Office.

The first petition was filed by six opposition senators while the second petition was filed by the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC) led by former Commission on Human Rights chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales.

Respondents in the petition were then Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, then UN Ambassador Teodoro Locsin Jr., and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo.

The country opted to withdraw from the ICC after its special prosecutor Fatou Bensouda started a preliminary examination on the alleged human-rights violations committed by the Duterte administration’s intensified war on drugs.

JPV