(Eagle News)–The Philippines’ withdrawal from the International Criminal Court has no effect on the country’s justice system nor on the foreign aid it receives, Solicitor General Jose Calida said on Monday, March 25.
According to Calida, the Philippine justice system “functions independently with or without membership in the ICC.”
He said the “investigation and prosecution of drug-related deaths, incidents, and/or offenses are ongoing in the country.”
In fact, based on official government statistics, he said that as of 2018, 49,034 drug-related cases have been filed in court, and 75,327 such cases were pending in public prosecutor’s offices.
He said there were also cases pending before the Supreme Court on alleged violations committed in connection with the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.
“All these facts show that the government is not unwilling or unable to prosecute these crimes, despite what administration critics say. Our government institutions continue to function, investigate, and prosecute these cases despite membership or non-membership in the ICC,” he said.
According to Calida, “all the relevant protections and guarantees under the Rome Statute,” which created the ICC, are “provided to the Filipino people through our domestic law.”
He said Republic Act No. 9851, or the “Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity,” for instance, “thoroughly encapsulates the purpose and intent of the Rome Statute.”
As such, he said the Philippines “cannot be coerced to submit to the jurisdiction of the ICC.”
“We have validly withdrawn from the Rome Statute pursuant to Article 127 thereof. As a sovereign state, it is our prerogative to be a party to the Rome Statute or not,” the solicitor general said.
Calida also noted that the Philippine withdrawal from the Rome Statute will not affect foreign aid, which sometimes comes with conditionalities on human rights protections.
He said apart from the fact that “Philippine laws sufficiently afford protection,” the country remains “a party to other human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).”
He said that in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, prior to the Philippines’ withdrawal, only Cambodia and Timor-Leste, ratified the Rome Statute.
“The fact that other ASEAN countries were not parties to the Rome Statute did not affect their foreign aid,” he added.
