MIRIAM WANTS RP IN ICC

 Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today filed a resolution urging President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to transmit the Rome Statute to the Senate for ratification proceedings. 

Santiago said that the change in US leadership will likely pave the way for US ratification of the Rome Statute. 

Like the US , the Philippines has yet to ratify the Rome Statute. Malacañang still has to transmit the treaty to the Senate for ratification even though the Philippines has been a signatory of the treaty since 28 December 2002. 

Under the Constitution, before the Rome Statute can be valid and effective in the Philippines , it is necessary that the Statute be concurred in by at least two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate. 

“Though the US , under the Bush administration, did not ratify the Rome Statute, President-elect Barack Obama’s statements on the International Criminal Court (ICC) suggests that he is open to working closely with the Court,” Santiago said. 

Mr. Obama has acknowledged in media interviews that the ICC has “pursued charges only in cases of the most serious and systematic crimes and it is in America ’s interests that these most heinous of criminals, like the perpetrators of the genocide in Darfur , are held accountable. These actions are a credit to the cause of justice and deserve full American support and cooperation.” 

The Rome Statute provides for the establishment of the ICC, which exercises jurisdiction over persons for the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. 

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Pimentel v. Office of the Executive Secretary that neither the Senate nor the Supreme Court can compel the President to transmit the signed text of the Rome Statute to the Senate. The President has sole discretion in initiating the ratification proceedings of a treaty.  

WITHOUT MIRIAM, ICJ HAS NO WOMAN JUDGE

By a hairsbreadth, feisty Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, missed election as judge of the International Court of Justice, after winning in the popular General Assembly, but losing in the elite Security Council. 

  Her narrow and colorful defeat makes the 15-member ICJ and all-male enclave, despite repeated UN advocacy of gender balance. 

“It was a hard campaign, but ultimately it was a power game. The developed states tend to vote for countries where they have interests to protect, such as foreign investments, use of natural resources, and a big export market. As a developing state, we have no such cards to play,” Santiago said, after arriving Friday midnight from the UN New York. 

  The Philippine delegation led by Foreign Affairs Sec. Alberto Romulo and UN Amb. Hilario Davide put up such a brave battle that after the first round of voting, after four judges had already been elected, Santiago ’s votes compelled the voting to reach four rounds. 

  “Big countries like China and France refused to support the Philippines while small countries like Indonesia and Vietnam remained staunch Philippine allies up to the end. Probably none of the Big Powers voted for the Philippines ,” Santiago said. 

  The Big Powers, who are the five permanent members of the Security Council, are US, UK , France , Moscow , and China . 

  “Reportedly, the US considers the Philippines negligible in world affairs. UK and France prefer to support former colonies, where they have big investments. China has big investments to protect in Jordan . Moscow is sore at the Philippines , because we did not vote for it in the last Security Council elections. All this is realpolitik,” Santiago said. 

  Santiago , a former UP international law professor, said realpolitik is politics based on the national interest and on power, in other words, practical politics. 

  “The United Nations keeps advocating gender balance but now in the ICJ there are 15 judges without a single woman judge. This shows that the UN does not advance international interest, as much as the national interests of powerful countries,” Santiago said. 

  Santiago , who is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that her recent practical lesson in realpolitik has colored her perception of treaties between the Philippines and certain developed states. 

  “Powerful states promote international law only when it works in their favor. For example, they advocate gender balance on paper, but reject it when it hinders their own national interests,” she said. 

  Santiago noted that while in the General Assembly some 143 states promised in writing to vote for the Philippines , she got only 107 votes, still the required majority, but showing that some states cannot be trusted to keep their promises. 

  “In the same manner, the Philippine mission received nine written promises to vote for the Philippines in the Security Council, but only five voted for me. Fortunately, I was already warned that UN diplomacy can be accompanied by betrayal, because of the practice of secret balloting,” she said. 

  Santiago said that if the Philippines plans to nominate another candidate for the ICJ three years from now, the government should already start the process of mutual exchange of favors at this time. 

  “One strategy is that each time a country approaches the Philippines for a favor, immediately our government should ask for a commitment to the ICJ or any other international organization. Another strategy is to strengthen solidarity among the 10 Asean member states so that we shall form a united power bloc. But the best way is to work at increasing Philippine power in international terms,” she said.

MIRIAM ASKS ERC TO REDUCE POWER RATES

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chair of the Joint Congressional Power Commission (Powercom) issued instructions to ERC chair Rodolfo Albano to take immediate steps to reduce Meralco rates.

Santiago said that although Powercom has no power to issue orders to ERC, the EPIRA law gives Powercom the function of issuing guidelines to ERC, and to monitor and ensure implementation of the EPIRA, which was intended to lower power rates.

In a privilege speech yesterday, Santiago issued the following guidelines to ERC:

• Resolve within three months, all pending petitions already submitted for resolution, with the end in view of lowering immediately the Meralco power rates;
  
• Uphold consumer protection in resolving the present petition from Meralco and Napocor, requesting permission to pass on to the consumers some P14 billion of the Meralco debt;
  
• Announce immediately a cap on systems losses, lower than the existing 9.5 percent cap;
  
• Order Meralco to list all inclusions in their generation cost;
  
• Order Meralco to show cause why it should not immediately give refunds to its consumers, pursuant to the Supreme Court decisions in cases concerning Meralco income taxation which were apparently passed on to consumers; and
  
• Order Meralco to show cause why it should not immediately give refunds for deposits on billing meters.

In the same privilege speech, Santiago said that the internet website of ABS-CBN, owned by the Lopez group, has committed against her the crimes of blackmail or grave threats, as well as the crime of libel, intended to defeat her candidacy for the International Court of Justice.

Santiago said that the website is guilty of following a scheme or pattern, because a series of derogatory articles against her and Powercom appeared immediately in the website after she chaired a Powercom public hearing to investigate why Meralco power rates are so high, the second highest in Asia.

Santiago chaired the meeting on May 12; the alleged defamatory articles appeared on May 16, 21, 23, and 25.

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LOPEZ FIRM HITS MIRIAM ON WORLD COURT BID

Only weeks after Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago partly blamed Meralco for high power rates, the ABS-CBN internet website in its top story tried to scuttle her candidacy for International Court of Justice (ICJ) by claiming that “some countries are moving to oppose her . . . , she has not even qualified for the highest court of the country.”

The story claims that “some countries are moving to oppose her,” without naming the countries or giving the reason for the alleged opposition.

The story also claims that “she has not even qualified for the highest court of the country,” referring to the decision of the Judicial and Bar Council not to even consider her nomination because they chose to adopt the policy of considering only incumbent Supreme Court justices.

Santiago recently presided over a televised Joint Congressional Power Commission hearing where she equally blamed Meralco and the National Power Commission (NPC), as well as alleged lax regulation, for the high power rates charged by Meralco.

Both Meralco and ABS-CBN are part of the vast Lopez business empire.

A top official in the Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York , alleged that “the negative spin of the news articles obviously affects the campaign since foreign embassies in Manila and the foreign service of other countries would report this to their capitals.”

The source also said that “the article would tremendously affect both the gains achieved by the Philippines in the campaign in the ICJ and its future efforts to preserve such gains to obtain more support.”

Santiago is not running in her own individual capacity, but as official candidate of the Philippines .
“The news article is full of unhelpful conjectures and factual errors,” the source said.

The derogatory item in the ABS-CBN website was published on May 23, only days after the probe on high Meralco rates.

Contacted for comment, Santiago said that the bicameral investigation was part of Powercom duties under the law.

While Santiago is Powercom chair, the co-chair is Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, son of President Arroyo, who has been urging Meralco to lower its power rates.

“I will have to take this in stride, because the Philippines has a culture of corruption. A vast business empire such as that of the Lopez family will not hesitate to use its media outlets, even to the point of destroying a national candidature, in order to protect their giant corporate profits,” Santiago said.

Santiago added that at least one newspaper columnist in a national daily had previously hinted that there would be a propaganda campaign against Santiago’s ICJ bid when because the columnist mentioned that her prior bid for another international court was scuttled because Santiago was an Estrada ally at that time.

Santiago added she would consider over the weekend whether she will avail of her options, such as a libel suit or a privilege speech on Monday, or whether she will just “suffer in silence” from the Lopez media firm.

“It is obviously the work of a dirty tricks department so evil that it hardly merits attention. In trying to destroy me, they are also destroying a Philippine national candidature. Sometimes iniquity is its own worst punishment,” she said.

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Transcript of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago’s interview

On the baselines bills

I believe that the archipelagic baselines bills filed in both chambers of Congress were sincerely intended and crafted out of intellectual honesty. I won’t say anything derogatory to the authors of the bills, except that they separately treat the archipelagic problem, particularly what are the boundaries of our national territory in a piecemeal manner. They pick certain provisions from the UNCLOS and then they try to apply it in their bills. You can’t do that.

The Philippines is a geographical archipelago, but if it makes a declaration that it is an archipelagic state, immediately we lose our rights to our internal waters. They will become in effect a highway for foreign vessels. Secondly, we would lose our right to protect our local fishermen from poaching of foreign vessels. These are just examples. There are many consequences of a declaration of an archipelagic state.

So first we must talk to the experts, meaning the scientists familiar with the measurements of the maritime boundaries. And we must talk with the legal experts, if possible officials in the foreign affairs connected with the negotiation of the UNCLOS.

I am not necessarily against those bills but I think it is premature to act on them at this time since the bills happen to include the Kalayaan Island Group and other disputed islands within the baselines.

Even the international limits in the Treaty of Paris do not include those disputed islands within our territorial boundaries. In doing so, the bills constitute a violation or at least a disregard of the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. That could be considered an offensive act of aggression by China.

On some senators on the doubting the legality of JPEPA’s conditional concurrence

I simply have to educate them. They are afraid because they don’t know about it. Fear is usually the result of ignorance. They’ve never had any experience with it. But in the United States , they have been practicing it since the 19th century and nobody has ever objected. The United States has entered into treaties with the world’s greatest powers, especially with Russia during the Cold War, and Russia never objected.

I know that a colleague has issued a press release, which I view as entirely unfortunate. He has fallen into the trap a freshman normally would. When you read for example the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, you have to be aware that the Vienna Convention is not a codification of general international law. It is not as if you are reading the Revised Penal Code, that if you don’t find it there, then it is not allowed by law. That is not the case with an international treaty particularly when it is multilateral in nature.

In any event, this is a very technical matter and I would be happy to educate my colleagues at this point. I think it is unfortunate to muddy the waters this early. The only question here is can we explain why Jpepa is advantageous to the Philippines during the plenary debate. Thereafter, we can proceed with subsidiary question of its procedural niceties.

9 March 2008

SENATE SETS APRIL SPRATLY PROBE, JPEPA VOTE

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, said that the public hearing on the controversial 2005 Spratly Islands agreement, as well as the Jpepa committee report, will be taken up on April 28, when Congress resumes session after the Holy Week break.

“Following Senate practice, the Spratly Islands investigation will probably be assigned to two committees: foreign relations committee for the constitutional and legal aspects, and blue ribbon committee for the criminal aspect,” she said.

Santiago said that the 2005 tripartite Joint Marine Seismic Understanding (JMSU) among the Philippines, China, and Vietnam, raises the issue of whether it violates the constitutional provision on Philippine sovereignty or jurisdiction over defined national territory.

“A mere scientific or technical cooperation agreement, which does not diminish or threaten Philippine sovereignty or jurisdiction, is constitutional,” she said.

The JMSU will collect data and information on the potential oil and gas reserves in the area, planned to last for three years, at US$15 million.

Santiago said that former Sen. Franklin Drilon, when he was justice secretary, issued a 1990 opinion stating it was “legally feasible” for the Philippines and Australia to conduct a similar Offshore Seismic Project.

She quoted Drilon, who ruled: “the project proposal which involves data-gathering, processing, and interpretation techniques envisioned pre-exploration activities which are not covered by constitutional limitations.”

“Drilon in 1990 said that a seismic project with Australia was legally feasible. Now Drilon in 2008 is saying that a similar seismic project with China could be a legal basis for impeaching President Arroyo. He will have to explain his mental calisthenics before the committee,” she said.

Santiago said that in his 1990 opinion, Drilon stated that after completion of the seismic project, “the President may enter into a service contract with a wholly-owned Australian corporation for large-scale exploration, development, and utilization of petroleum resources in accordance with P.D. No. 87, and other pertinent laws.”

“In 1990, Drilon approved not only the seismic project, but even a service contract with a foreign country for the use of petroleum resources. By contrast, in 2008, Drilon implies that a similar seismic project, without a service contract is already illegal and exposes the President to impeachment. This is a flip-flop that shows intellectual inconsistency,” she said.

Santiago cited the 1992 ASEAN Declaration on the South China Sea issued in Manila, where ASEAN foreign ministers resolved, “without prejudicing the sovereignty and jurisdiction of countries having direct interests in the area, to explore the possibility of cooperation in the South China Sea relating to the safety of maritime navigation and communication, protection against pollution in the marine environment . . .”

Santiago said the 1992 Declaration was followed by the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which she said “is merely a political declaration, without binding legal force, seeking to turn a sea of disputes into a sea of cooperation, pursuant to the policy of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping.”

Deng advocated the principle of “putting aside the disputes and jointly exploiting,” the area of the South China Sea.

“There is a curious question of timing. Since the pact was signed three years ago, why is it only now that it is being assailed as alleged presidential misconduct? What is the basis for the charge by a foreign writer that it is an alleged sellout?” she said.

Santiago warned that RP-China relations should not be dragged into the political fray, noting that China has extended preferential loans to the Philippines for various development programs, and is now the main financial provider for Southeast Asia, ahead of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and aid programs from the US and Japan.

“The anti-Arroyo campaign should not be turned into an anti-China campaign. We should consign power plays to the domestic arena. International relations and diplomacy are too important to our national interest to be used as partisan political ploys. It takes decades to build up good interstate relations,” she said.

In another development, Santiago said that when Congress resumes on April 28, she will release a Full Committee Report recommending conditional concurrence with Jpepa.

“Ordinarily, a committee report is only two pages, bearing the signatures of committee members. But this time my committee report will be so extensive that it will be a bound volume. Jpepa is an extraordinary treaty, raising significant issues of constitutional and international law,” she said.

Santiago said that Jpepa committee report will comprise at least four documents: the standard format with the signatures of nearly all 23 senators who are members of the two committees; the draft Senate resolution setting out the conditions for concurrence; the report on the constitutional and legal issues filed by herself as chair of the foreign relations committee; and the report on the trade and industry issues to be filed by Sen. Mar Roxas as chair of the trade and commerce committee.

The senator said she finished Jpepa hearings in November last year, but Sen. Edgardo Angara requested additional hearings that took another month.

“In January, the Senate could not take up Jpepa, because the budget always takes priority. In February, it was overtaken by the NBN probe. This March, there is an extended Congress break. That is why April, when session resumes, is the earliest date available,” she said.

Santiago said she hopes Japan will accept the conditions, without resubmitting the Jpepa to the Japanese Diet or parliament.

“The constitutional issues are paramount. Hence, the Senate should ensure that the Supreme Court will not declare Jpepa unconstitutional. If we do not take scrupulous care in the Senate and the court declares it unconstitutional, such declaration of unconstitutionality will not be a valid defense, if Japan later sues the Philippines for nonperformance of contract obligation. This is a provision of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,” the senator said.

Santiago will be abroad until November this year, to campaign for the post of judge of the International Court of Justice where, if elected by the United Nations, she will be the only female among 15 judges elected worldwide on the basis of the highest qualifications in international law.
But Santiago said she plans to be in Manila when session resumes in April, so that she can deliver her Jpepa sponsorship speech and defend it, as well as preside over the Spratly Islands hearing, before resuming her hectic campaign schedule abroad.

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News Release

5 November 2007

MIRIAM ADDRESSES UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago delivered an address before the United Nations General Assembly last 2 November 2007 (Philippine time), during the International Law Commission (ILC) Week in New York.

The ILC Week is part of the General Assembly’s 62nd Session, and is the venue to discuss developments in international law.

Senate President Manny Villar, Majority Leader Kiko Pangilinan, and Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. sent Santiago their best wishes before she left for New York .

Santiago , chair of both the Committee on Energy and the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Senate, as well as an international law expert, spoke before the General Assembly on the issues of shared natural resources and reservation to treaties.

As the Philippine candidate to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Santiago ’s participation in the ILC Week served to introduce her to the international law community and highlight her intellectual capacity and grasp of international law issues.

Last 20 July 2007, Santiago was nominated to the ICJ by the Philippine National Group composed of Supreme Court Associate Justice Consuelo Ynares Santiago, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Florentino Feliciano, then Integrated Bar of the Philippines National President Atty. Jose Vicente Salazar, and University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law Dean Alfredo Benipayo.

Santiago ’s candidature was endorsed by Chief Justice Reynato Puno, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines , the Philippine Bar Association, the Philippine Women Judges Association Inc., the Philippine Association of Law Schools, and the Philippine Association of Law Professors.

Santiago ’s nomination to the ICJ was announced by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during the ASEAN Ministers’ meeting last 30 July 2007.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo has ordered all ambassadors and consul generals abroad to support the Philippine campaign for Santiago to the ICJ.

Should Santiago get elected to the ICJ, she will be the second Filipino to serve in the World Court . Supreme Court Chief Justice Cesar Bengzon served as ICJ judge from 1967 to 1976.

Santiago will also be the first female Asian judge in the ICJ. She will also be the second female ICJ judge, next to Rosalyn Higgins from the United Kingdom . Higgins currently serves as President of the ICJ.

Five seats in the ICJ will be available in 5 February 2009. Elections will be held at the UN in New York late 2008. A candidate needs to get at least majority vote in both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, voting simultaneously but separately.

The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. The Court decides two types of cases: (1) legal disputes between States submitted to Court (contentious cases); and (2) requests for advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by United Nations organs and specialized agencies (advisory opinions).

Santiago is banking on her long and distinguished career in government and her strong record of academic excellence to take her to the World Court .

Before her term as senator, she served as presiding judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, Commissioner of Immigration, and Secretary of Agrarian Reform. She was awarded the 1988 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service (the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize) for her work as Immigration Commissioner.

She has a Doctor of Science of Law degree from the University of Michigan , where she was a Barbour Scholar and Dewitt Fellow. She was also a Visiting Law Fellow at Oxford University and a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University . She also worked as professor of law at the University for the Philippines for more than a decade. She is listed in the 2000 United Nations roster of eminent and highly qualified experts in international law and is the author of a number of books on international law and international relations.

Photo by Elmer Cato of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations

News Release

30 August 2007

MIRIAM LECTURES DIPLOMATS ON INTERNATIONAL LAW

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, Philippine nominee to the International Court of Justice, delivered the keynote speech at the opening ceremonies of the 2007 Conference on International Humanitarian Law held at a Manila hotel yesterday (Wednesday, 29 August).

The conference was attended by all foreign diplomats accredited to the Philippines, as well as public officials involved in international humanitarian law, such as the Commission on Human Rights, National Red Cross, departments of defense, interior, and justice, armed forces, and national police.

Santiago, an international law expert, discussed “International Humanitarian Law as an Evolving Field of Law.”

Her lecture included the topics of definition and historical background, the overlap of international humanitarian law with international human rights law, issues in armed conflicts, and humanitarian law enforcement.

Santiago defined international humanitarian law as “a new field of law that governs the use of force, specifically the protection of persons from the effects of armed conflicts.”

She said that this new field is a combination of the Laws of The Hague, also known as the laws of war, and the Law of Geneva, which deals with the protection of civilians during armed conflict.

Santiago, Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, gave an extensive analysis of the Four Geneva Conventions and the Two Additional Protocols.

She said that international humanitarian law is enforced today by placing war crimes under universal jurisdiction, and requiring parties to a conflict to accept an offer by the Red Cross to assume humanitarian functions.

Santiago advocated more widespread enforcement of international humanitarian law by suing a state liable for compensation, by adopting UN resolutions, and by subjecting states engaged in armed conflict to scrutiny by, and pressure from, third parties.

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