The Supreme Court has rescheduled anew the oral arguments on petitions of opposition senators questioning the constitutionality of President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to withdraw the country’s membership in the International Criminal Court.
The oral argument which was slated today, Tuesday, has been reset to Aug. 28, the SC said, in an advisory.
The SC’s Public Information Office said the parties have already been informed of the change in schedule although the official resolution will be approved and released today.
The high court made the move upon request of six opposition senators who filed the petition after it denied their plea to have detained Senator Leila de Lima to be temporarily released from detention to argue the case for them.
The opposition senators said that they “do not have a representative for the oral arguments on 14 August 2018 whom they deem able to fully articulate their position.”
De Lima was joined by Senators Kiko Pangilinan, Franklin Drilon, Bam Aquino, Antonio Trillanes IV and Risa Hontiveros in filing the petition.
This is the third time the SC has rescheduled the oral argument on the ICC petition. It has moved the oral arguments twice—from July 24 to Aug. 7 and then to Aug. 14—to give parties more time to prepare.
In their petition filed last May, the opposition senators sought issuance of an order compelling the government to revoke the notice sent last March for withdrawal of the Philippine government’s signature from the Rome Statute.
They argued that such withdrawal from the ICC violated the Constitution, which requires ratification of treaties and international agreements by the Senate.
The senators cited Article VII Section 21 of the 1987 Constitution, which states that “entering into treaty or international agreement requires participation of Congress, that is, through concurrence of at least two-thirds of all the members of the Senate.”
A similar petition filed by the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC) led by former Commission on Human Right chair Loretta Rosales was consolidated to the case.