Another petition has been filed before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of President Rodrigo’s Duterte’s move to withdraw the country from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Duterte announced the withdrawal in March, citing the “baseless, unprecedented and outrageous attacks” against him and his administration over its anti-drug war that is being blamed for thousands of deaths.
The Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court urged the high court to declare as void Duterte’s action, including the notice of withdrawal from the Rome Statute that was deposited in the office of the UN Secretary-General on March 17.
The PCICC, a non-governmental organization composed of individuals and groups that campaigned for the country to become a State party to the Statute, said the act of the Duterte administration would sound the death knell for those who want to see justice done for violation of human rights when and where the State is unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes committed against its own citizens.
“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 petition says.
The petitioners said the President committed grave abuse of discretion when he unilaterally made the move in violation of the 1987 Constitution.
“His act violated the Constitutional system of checks and balances in the treaty under Article VII, Section 21 of the 1987 Constitution, which prescribes a shared duty towards that end between the Executive and Legislative branches of government,” the petition says.
It says Duterte’s decision is ‘based on capricious, whimsical, ridiculous, misleading, incoherent and or patently false grounds, with no basis in fact, law or jurisprudence.”
The petitioners said that, contrary to Duterte’s contention, his right to due process are not being violated as it is basic in the Rules of Procedure of the ICC that the procedure opened by the ICC is merely a preliminary investigation on the case filed by lawyer Jude Sabio and supplemented by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano.
Duterte’s announcement of withdrawal came after ICC special prosecutor Fatou Bensouda started a preliminary examination on the alleged human rights violations amid the intensified anti-drug war.
The petitioners said the high court should order Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea through the Department of Foreign Affairs and the country’s Permanent Mission to the UN to recall the notice of withdrawal.
This would be the second petition filed before the high court seeking the nullification of the withdrawal from the Rome Statute.
The first petition was filed on May 16 by opposition senators led by Francis Pangilinan that said the withdrawal from the Rome Statute “cannot be justified under the so-called ‘residual powers’ of the President.”
The other senators who signed the petition were Bam Aquino, Franklin Drilon, Antonio Trillanes IV, Risa Hontiveros and Leila de Lima.
The high has already scheduled an oral argument on the first petition on July 24.