De Lima: Executive action 'would suffice' for PH to rejoin ICC

For former Senator Leila de Lima, an executive action would be enough for the Philippines to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC), the international body that is seeking to investigate the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

“An executive action would suffice, because, in the first place, the withdrawal was unilateral,” De Lima said in an interview on ANC on Friday.

She added that there was never a Supreme Court ruling on the validity and constitutionality of the withdrawal.

“It would have been different if the Supreme Court categorically ruled that the withdrawal was proper, that it was consistent with the Constitution, that there was nothing wrong with the withdrawal,” she said.

De Lima made the remark when asked about Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa's remark that a Senate concurrence was needed to rejoin the ICC.

Dela Rosa is the former chief of the Philippine National Police under the Duterte Administration.

During the interview, De Lima was further asked if there was no need for the long process to rejoin, and she answered “Yes.”

“And so I would hope that his legal advisers would thoroughly study the matter. The Rome Statute itself, the various relevant positions there, and also the Pangilinan Et. al. vs. the Cayetano Et. al ruling,” she said. 

The Philippines, under then-President Rodrigo Duterte, withdrew from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, in 2019 after the tribunal began a probe into the drug war, followed by a formal inquiry in September 2021.

In January 2023, the ICC authorized the reopening of the inquiry after it was suspended in November 2021. 

The ICC Appeals Chamber in July also denied the government’s appeal against the resumption of the inquiry, prompting numerous government officials, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, to speak against continued engagement with the ICC.

Several House lawmakers, however, have recently filed several resolutions urging the Marcos administration to cooperate with the ICC’s investigation.

This was followed by a Senate resolution filed by Senator Risa Hontiveros, which also called for the government’s cooperation.

For his part, Marcos previously said that returning under the fold of the ICC is "under study."

According to De Lima, rejoining would be the right thing to do “for justice and accountability." She added that it would “earn points” with the international community. 

“Not necessarily the US, but the likes of the European Union. You know, because joining the Rome Statute would give us the opportunity now to also join the community of nations that would fight impunity, that would fight tyrants in states where there would be aberrations of their domestic justice system, there would be aberrations of their political systems,” she said.

De Lima said that not rejoining would also be inconsistent with the country’s track record in affirming human rights principles.

“We are parties to key human rights instruments, human rights treaties. And we’ve been among those, we’ve been active in the formative stage of the Rome Statute and ICC,” she said.

First Christmas

Meanwhile, De Lima expressed eagerness for the upcoming Christmas holiday as it would be the first time she would spend it with her family after nearly seven years in detention.

“Yes, it’s going to be the best Christmas ever,” she said.

The former Senator was recently released on bail in her remaining drug case.

She said her plan is to start the process of returning to private law practice and teaching. 

Currently, De Lima said she had no plans to return to run for Senator.

She was accused by the Duterte administration of benefiting from the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison during her stint as secretary of the Department of Justice.

De Lima’s first acquittal came in February 2021 when the Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 205 junked one of her three cases. On May 12, the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204 acquitted her and Ronnie Dayan, her co-accused and former bodyguard. —Joahna Lei Casilao/ VAL, GMA Integrated News