{"id":157099,"date":"2018-03-17T23:09:18","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T03:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=157099"},"modified":"2018-03-17T23:09:18","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T03:09:18","slug":"prrd-not-evading-liability-with-icc-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/03\/17\/prrd-not-evading-liability-with-icc-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD not \u2018evading liability\u2019 with ICC withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Duterte (KARL NORMAN ALONZO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0– President Rodrigo R. Duterte is not evading any \u201cliability\u201d with his decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), his spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the fact that the ICC could still proceed with its preliminary examination despite the withdrawal meant that Duterte was not trying to evade liability.<\/p>\n

\u201cGaya nga ng sinabi ng ICC mismo na pupuwedeng magtuloy ang imbestigasyon maski na tayo ay umalis sa tratado<\/em>\u00a0(As the ICC itself said, the investigation can continue even if we have withdrawn from the treaty),\u201d Roque said in a radio interview.<\/p>\n

Roque was referring to the Rome Statute, a treaty which created the ICC.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa akin po ay the fact na pupuwedeng tumuloy iyan ay magpapakita na ang pag-alis natin ay sa kadahilanan, bukod pa doon sa umiiwas na pananagutan ng Presidente<\/em>\u00a0(So for me, the fact that it can proceed shows that the reason for our withdrawal is apart from evading liability),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Roque said the ICC had \u201cno jurisdiction\u201d over the President as the treaty is \u201cnot effective nor enforceable in the Philippines\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even assuming that ICC can have jurisdiction over him, Duterte has argued that the acts he allegedly committed do not fall under the enumerated grounds by which the ICC could assume jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng sabi ng Presidente, walang hurisdiksyon ang hukuman sa kaniya. At iyan ang kaniyang magiging paninindigan hanggang siya ay mamatay<\/em>\u00a0(The President said the ICC has no jurisdiction over him and that is what he will stand for until the day he dies),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHabang bukas at gumagana ang mga hukuman natin at mapapanagot ang mga mamamayan natin ay hinding hindi dapat mag-ehersisyo ng hurisdiksiyon ang ICC<\/em>\u00a0(As long as our courts here continue to operate, the ICC cannot exercise jurisdiction),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Roque, meanwhile, said the Palace is currently reviewing if the withdrawal of the ratification could take effect much earlier than one year after the date of receipt of the notification.<\/p>\n

\u201cOo iyan ang nakasaad doon sa Rome Statute, isang taon. Pero pag-aaralan ko po iyan kasi nakasulat din diyan na pupuwedeng mas maaga<\/em>\u00a0(Yes, that\u2019s what\u2019s stated in the Rome Statute, one year. But we have to review that because it also says that it can happen much earlier),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Why tied to a year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque questioned why the Philippines should be tied to one year when the country is not avoiding its obligations in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cBakit naman tayo matatali sa isang taon? Tayo naman hindi naman tayo umaatras sa ating obligasyon<\/em>\u00a0(Why should we be tied to one year? We won\u2019t be avoiding our obligations),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

He said had the ICC respected the principle of complementarity, due process and the presumption of innocence, the President would not have decided to withdraw from the international organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Philippine government made itself a signatory to the Rome Statute, it was on the assumption that the internationally accepted principles of justice in relation to our Constitutional requirement on due process will be upheld,\u201d Duterte said in a statement earlier released by Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs demonstrated above, the very considerations upon which the Philippines agreed to be a signatory to the Rome Statute have not been observed nor complied with hence the rescission of such agreement or the withdrawal of our country ratification of the Rome Statute is in order,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0– President Rodrigo R. Duterte is not evading any \u201cliability\u201d with his decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":155825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[15359,12477,16251,48275],"class_list":["post-157099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-harry-roque","tag-international-criminal-court","tag-rodrigo-r-duterte","tag-rome-statute","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}