(Eagle News)–For the Palace, the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago’s election as International Criminal Court judge was void from the start.
“If the position is we’ve never been a state party, then logically it is void unless the international court says it is not,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
Asked why Raul Pangalangan, who currently sits as a judge in the tribunal, was never pulled out, Panelo said “we don’t have to pull out anybody if the position is we never was under the jurisdiction of the court.”
“…Then it behooves whoever is there to do something for himself,” he said.
The Philippines officially pulled out of the ICC on March 17, a year after the country informed the United Nations of its decision.
President Rodrigo Duterte had made the announcement about the withdrawal after ICC prosecutor Bensou Fatuoda said a preliminary examination of the communications filed against the chief executive for the drug war was underway.
The Palace said the Rome Statute that creates the ICC was never in effect in the Philippines because it was not published in a newspaper of general circulation nor in the Official Gazette as required of any law.