(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte has made it clear to China that the Philippine government had nothing to do with the filing of a communication against Chinese President Xi Jinping before the International Criminal Court.
According to a press release from Malacañang, this was what Duterte told Song Tao, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, during the Chinese official’s courtesy call on the chief executive on Wednesday, March 27.
The Palace said Duterte emphasized the Philippines was a “democratic country.”
“Therefore, ‘we cannot stop people from just filing cases,'” the Palace said.
Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales filed the communication against Xi over China’s expansive claims in the West Philippine Sea on March 15, two days before the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC became official.
But Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, also the presidential legal counsel, said the filing “may be a futile exercise.”
Panelo noted China was not a member of the ICC, and that the complainants were not authorized to file the communication on behalf of the Philippines.
Even if they were authorized, Panelo said “our position is that the ICC has never acquired jurisdiction over us given that the Rome Statute never took effect as the requirement of publication in a newspaper of general circulation or in the Official Gazette was not complied with, which publication is a requirement in our jurisdiction before the said Rome Statute or any law for that matter becomes effective and enforceable.”
The Rome Statute has enabled the creation of the ICC.
As such, Panelo said “the Philippines, like China, as we have said, is not a State Party to the ICC hence the latter cannot take jurisdiction.”
He added the Rome Statute does not cover environmental damage.
