CEBU CITY, Cebu (PIA) – Misleading and flawed.
This is how an international law lecturer at the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu described the attempts to discredit the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the issue of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s arrest.
Those critical of the ICC have called the arrest of the former president as “foreign interference.”
“The ICC process should be seen, in fact, as an opportunity for our people to learn about foundational principles of international law including the Rome Statute, and our domestic laws as well, like RA 9851,” explained Lawyer lan Vincent C. Manticajon, UP Cebu senior lecturer in Journalism and Media Law and University of Cebu (UC) lecturer in Special Issues in International Law.
Manticajon said that while states have absolute control over their internal affairs, states also have obligations to humanity.
Section of 17 of RA 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity, adopts the complementarity principle in the Rome Statute, which means that the ICC does not particularly replace the Philippine justice system but supports it.
Rome Statute is a treaty that established the ICC that defines the jurisdiction, structure, and functions of the court which is responsible for prosecuting individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime aggression.
The Philippines’ cooperation with the ICC goes to show that the country respects the internal legal obligations and is willing to seek justice beyond domestic political accommodations or considerations, said Manticajon.
“The ICC referral shows our country’s commitment to accountability and acknowledges that international law complements domestic justice,” he said.
He added that this is not an admission of weakness, instead, it is an acknowledgement that international mechanisms exist to assist domestic legal systems when needed.
“We need to see this as a challenge to reassess our commitment to human rights and the rule of law, hopefully leading to stronger domestic prosecutions of human rights violations in the future,” he added. (JTT/RGC/PIA7)
