Just recently, my Public International Law class had a little trip to the Senate to witness the hearing on the then pending concurrence of the Senate to the country’s signing of the Rome Statute. The said law established the International Criminal Court (ICC) which exercises jurisdiction over cases concerning crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and the like. To our disappointment, the Senate deferred voting for a day. Apparently, Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile is in disagreement with its approval for reasons only we could guess. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago obliged to elucidate us disclosing something about internal politics but I was too starstruck to catch her words and ended up noticing her accent more than her reasoning. I found out two days after that it has finally taken effect with 16 (or 17) yeas and a lone nay from Enrile. Finally, we are under the ICC’s jurisdiction making it feasible for us to bring cases to the Hague-based international court. So what’s in it for us? If and when domestic courts are unable or unwilling to prosecute and try national leaders and heads of state for felonies supposedly committed, we can elevate the case to the ICC. HENCE, national leaders who escape conviction domestically due to anomalous impunity can now be prosecuted and tried in the international court. That’s the beauty of it.
Dismal, however, is the inefficiency (if I may be permitted to express) of our government departments in the system or process of treaty-signing including ratification, transmittal from the Executive to the Senate, and the concurrence (or not) of the Senate to validate the treaty. Well, at least in this case. To my surprise, it took an estimate of 13 years for the Senate to actually vote and approve the Rome Statute as binding to the Philippines. So what happened in between? Politics, I guess. And lots of it.
The US wasn’t a signatory to the Rome Statute, though I am not certain if they already are at present. They did not agree to it precisely because the US is a great global bully that won’t take any form of condescension in the international scene. As far as they’re concerned, not an international court or internationally recognized laws can impose their jurisdiction upon them. And so because the Philippines is an infuriatingly loyal ally, in my mind, we must have maintained “allegiance” by adopting their position. I am tempted to consider this superfluous puppetry.
Our trip seemed futile apart from the en masse exit of our class from the Session Hall, which hopefully sent a signal to our Senators of our humble disappointment. Oh well, at least we got to have our picture taken with Madame Miriam. J
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