The legal challenge against the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, the tribunal looking into the killings and alleged human rights violations in the country, was dismissed by the Philippine Supreme Court.
A unanimous vote was reached by the justices to junk the petition “for being moot and academic,” announced the 15-member high court in a statement on Tuesday. Senators from the opposition filed their petition in May 2018, two months after Duterte submitted an “Instrument of Withdrawal” to the UN Secretary General, but it took the Supreme Court almost three years to decide on the case.
In March 2019, the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC, already took effect.
The senators pleaded for the high court to invalidate Duterte’s move, alleging that it violates Article 7, Section 21 of the Constitution, which states: “No treaty or international agreement shall be valid and effective unless concurred in by at least two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate.” Senators Kiko Pangilinan, Franklin Drilon, Leila De Lima, and Risa Hontiveros, as well as then Senators Antonio Trillanes and Bam Aquino averred that the provision applies to both entering and withdrawing from a treaty.
However, it was argued by the Duterte administration that the Constitution is silent on this matter since it only requires Senate concurrence in the ratification of an agreement.
The decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen has not been released. But in its statement, the Supreme Court acknowledged that while the President is the chief architect of the country’s foreign policy, he is still “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 which authorizes the negotiation of a treaty or international agreement or when there is a statute that implements an existing treaty,” said the tribunal.
