The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the appeal of Senator Leila de Lima for furlough from detention to allow her to argue on the petitions filed by opposition senators assailing the Duterte administration’s decision to withdraw the country’s membership in the International Criminal Court.
During its en banc session, the justices voted 10-2 to turn down the motion of De Lima, who has been detained since February last year due to drug trading cases against her before the Muntinlupa City regional trial court.
The motion seeks to allow her temporary release from detention inside the Philippine National Police custodial center to personally argue the petition she filed with five other opposition senators in oral argument set next Tuesday.
“The Court found no compelling reason to have Senator de Lima personally appear during the conduct of oral arguments. It noted that Senator De Lima’s capacity to appear for herself must yield to the fundamental restrictions on her liberty borne by her current detention and that, in any case, it does not appear that her and her co-petitioners’ cause would be prejudiced by another counsel appearing her place,” the SC ruled.
In a media briefing, SC spokesman Theodore Te revealed the SC rejected her invocation of the Rules of Court that “expressly allow a litigant to personally prosecute his or her case.”
The tribunal also noted that De Lima “did not, at any time, plead circumstances or competencies exclusive to her which make her appearance to the exclusion of her co-petitioners imperative and indispensable.”
Likewise, the SC also denied a similar motion filed by De Lima’s colleagues—Senators Francis Pangilinan, Franklin Drilon, Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros and Antonio Trillanes IV—backing her plea.
In their petition filed last May, the opposition senators asked the SC to compel the government to revoke the notice sent last March for withdrawal of the Philippine government’s signature from the Rome Statute.
According to them, such withdrawal from the ICC violated the Constitution, which requires ratification of treaties and international agreements by the Senate.
The senators cited Article VII Section 21 of the 1987 Constitution, which states that “entering into treaty or international agreement requires participation of Congress, that is, through concurrence of at least two-thirds of all the members of the Senate.”
A similar petition filed by the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court led by former Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta Rosales was consolidated to the case.