Teresita de Castro won’t vote on ICC withdrawal case

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) will rule on the case involving the Duterte administration’s withdrawal of the country’s membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC) without the vote of Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro.

The SC has reset the continuation of oral arguments on two petitions seeking revocation of the withdrawal from ICC membership from yesterday to Oct. 9, with De Castro no longer with the Court.

De Castro is set to retire from the judiciary on Oct. 8 when she reaches mandatory retirement age of 70, which means the SC will rule on consolidated petitions of opposition senators and the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court led by former Commission on Human Rights chairperson Loretta Rosales under a new chief justice.

The Chief Justice joined the earlier oral arguments on the case held last Aug. 28 and Sept. 4.

During interpellation, De Castro quizzed petitioners on the validity of the Rome Statute, a treaty ratified by the government in 2011 that created the ICC.

“It would seem there are provisions in the Rome Statute which will require domestic legislation to put them into effect. As of now, I think it is conceded that we do not have any implementing legislation yet,” she stressed during the hearing.

“So the question is whether or not the Rome Statute is already in force and in effect as of this time, and what will be the consequence of this to the power of the President to withdraw from (it)?” the SC chief pointed out.

Petitioners argued that Republic Act 9851 or the International Humanitarian Law penalized the crimes covered in Articles 5, 668, 769 and 870 of the Rome Statute like genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.