In an ambush interview during the kick-off ceremony of the 7th Biennal Conference of the Asian Society in Pasay City last March 18, 2019, Prof. Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan told the Press that the Philippines should not have withdrawn from the Rome Statute and that withdrawal from the International Criminal Court is ‘shortsighted.’ 

She explained, “I believe that we acceded to the statute in order to provide protection for Filipinos in case of atrocities and this was rather shortsighted, I would say, because maybe now we don’t think that it should be a used, but how about in the future?” 

This was after President Rodrigo Duterte announced the country’s withdrawal from the ICC last February 2018, which took effect on March 17, 2019. 

“It took a while before the Senate ratified it. Now that we’ve withdrawn and it has become effective, we may sign it in the future, but it has to go through ratification again. So, mahirap (It’s difficult),” she added. 

(Prof. Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan is the current Director of the University of the Philippines Law Center Institute of Human Rights, an institute with a mission to “contribute to the development of law and policy in light of the imperative of human dignity and integrity.”) 

The full report may be accessed here: https://globalnation.inquirer.net/173695/ph-withdrawal-from-icc-shortsighted-up-law-professor?utm_expid=.XqNwTug2W6nwDVUSgFJXed.1