PHNO-HL: SANTIAGO WON'T QUIT SENATE YET; ONLY 12, NOT 13 VACANT SENATE SEATS

SANTIAGO WON'T QUIT SENATE YET; ONLY 12, NOT 13
VACANT SENATE SEATS
MANILA, JULY 6,
2012 (INQUIRER) By Kate Evangelista - Senator Miriam Santiago
made this clear Wednesday to pre-empt the Commission on Elections' move to
declare that 13 seats would be contested for the senatorial elections next year.

The feisty senator said that the ballots for the 2013 elections should only
list 12 vacancies in the Senate because she will not resign from the chamber
until the International Criminal Court (ICC) formally calls her to duty.
In view of her ascension to ICC, the Comelec has called for Santiago's
resignation.
According to Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, Santiago should vacate her
seat before the October 5, 2012 deadline for filing of candidacy for the 2013
elections so that the Comelec will know whether there will be 13 vacant seats in
the Senate.
In a statement, Santiago, who was elected to the ICC by the Assembly of
States Parties last December 2011, said she cannot determine her date of
resignation from the Senate and her assumption to her ICC seat due to the
provisions of the rules of the international court.
According to the ICC Charter, or the Rome Statute, any incumbent judge shall
not be allowed to retire unless he or she finishes any trial he has participated
in.
"I have no discretion on when I should report to the ICC. This is why I
cannot resign from the Senate, until the ICC indicates that I should do so," she
explained. "I will simply have to wait until the ICC Presidency makes a decision
on whether I should report to the Appeals Chamber, which is considered the most
prestigious of the three chambers of the ICC."
Santiago said that the provision of the ICC Charter provides that the ICC
should consist only of 18 judges and a newly elected judge has to wait until an
incumbent judge has finished all his or her pending trials even if it is already
beyond his or her retirement date.
"Then and only then will the new Judge be called to duty," Santiago said.
Santiago is the first Filipino and first Asian from a developing nation to be
elected into the ICC which tries cases like genocide, war crimes and crimes
against humanity.
She added that in February 22 of this year, ICC President Sang-Hyun Song
wrote letters to the six newly-elected judges, including Santiago, and advised
them "not to make any irreversible commitments for the time being which could
terminate your current professional engagements with a view to future engagement
at the Court."
Santiago said she understood that the advice meant that she should not resign
yet from her seat as a Senator.
The veteran lady-senator added that she also requested President Song to put
her name at the bottom of the list so that she will be one of the last of the
six new judges to be called to duty. Santiago said that the ICC president noted
her request and decision to remain as a Senator of the Philippines until she is
called for duty by the ICC.
Santiago added that she has tried to keep silent about her potential
resignation since the assumption to office of a new ICC Judge is treated as
confidential between the incoming judge and the ICC Presidency.
"But because there is now widespread media and public speculation in the
Philippines, I am constrained to make this public, at least to save significant
printing expenses on the part of the Comelec, and to guide political parties in
drawing up their senatorial slates," Santiago said.



Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved




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