(Eagle News)—The Palace on Saturday, March 23, said that while it was the right of former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to file it, the filing of a communication against China’s Xi Jinping before the International Criminal Court may be a “futile exercise.”
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said this was because in the first place, China was not a member of the ICC and as such had no jurisdiction over it.
“The complainants are also not authorized to lodge a complaint against China at the ICC on behalf of the Philippines..,” he said.
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.”
As such, he said “the Philippines, like China, as we have said, is not a State Party to the ICC hence the latter cannot take jurisdiction.”
According to Panelo, even then, the Rome Statute does not cover environmental damage.
“What it includes are murder; extermination; enslavement; forcible transfer of population; severe deprivation of physical liberty; torture; rape or sexual slavery; political, racial, religious, ethnic or gender persecution; enforced disappearances; or other inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious injury to physical or mental health…,” he said.
He said if the case was dismissed by the ICC for lack of jurisdiction, the President’s critics “will have a field day criticising the President.”
“They can claim that it was a mistake for the Philippine government to withdraw its membership from the Rome Statute as the ICC can no longer serve as a venue to prosecute President Xi for an alleged commission of crime against humanity,” he said.
He reiterated the government “is engaged in a diplomatic negotiation, through a bilateral consultation mechanism (BCM), over the West Philippine Sea issue.”
“We do not need the help or disturbance of a biased tribunal known to politically prosecute heads of state, the very reason why powerful countries like the United States, China, Russia, and Israel, to name only a few, have either withdrawn their membership as State Parties from the Rome Statute or declined to be members of the ICC,” he said.
Morales and Del Rosario filed the communication against Xi two days before the Philippines’ official withdrawal from the ICC.
President Rodrigo Duterte announced the country’s withdrawal from the tribunal after ICC prosecutor Bensou Fatuoda said she would be conducting a preliminary examination of the communications filed against Duterte in connection with the drug war.
The communications were filed by Duterte’s critics led by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
The communication filed by Morales and Del Rosario were in relation to China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea.