All warrants of the International Criminal Court (ICC) should be filed as “under seal” or secret, according to ICC assistant to counsel Kristina Conti.
In an interview with Manila Standard on Wednesday, Conti explained that it is understandable that the court spokesperson would not confirm a warrant against Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa following a recent amendment to the ICC’s regulations.
“What this means is that, whether a warrant has indeed been issued or is still to be issued, it is most likely not intended to be made known to the public, until, of course, a suspect has been brought to the court. Considerations for publicizing or not publicizing a warrant include whether this could interrupt criminal conduct, deter the commission of other crimes, or maximise opportunities for arrest,” she said.
The said rule was approved last week and came into force on Monday, November 10.
Under the amended regulations, “the existence and/or content of an application referred to in sub-regulation 1 may not be made public unless the Chamber seized of the application has ordered the reclassification of the application or authorised reference thereto.”
In a separate interview, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla shared that the alleged copy of the warrant obtained by his brother, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, came from a third source.
“We talked on the phone. He told me he got the electronic copy from a third source. So, it is not from the ICC,” he told Dobol B TV in Filipino.
Yesterday, Chief State Counsel Dennis Arvin L. Chan clarified that under R.A. No. 9851, the state has two options available, which include extradition and surrender.
“To close the door on one option and just focus entirely on extradition is limiting the state’s discretion under Section 17 of R.A. 9851. We also like to inform everyone that the [SC’s] Rules on Extradition were actually brought about by the [DOJ’s] request for the [SC] to come out with uniform guidelines on how to resolve requests for extradition,” he said.
