INTERNATIONAL law and constitutional experts who asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to nullify the recently signed Philippine baseline law went back to the High Court today to prevent government officials from depositing it with the United Nations next week.
The petitioners said they learned that a delegation of officials from offices the Department of Foreign Affairs, the National Resource Mapping and Information Authority and the Department of Budget and Management are scheduled to fly to the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Sunday to register and deposit the new Philippine baselines law, among other things.
They said they also learned that an official delegation led by the head of the DFA’s Center for Maritime and Ocean Affairs, lawyer Henry Bensurto Jr., is due to leave Manila for the UN headquarters in New York on Sunday.
The petitioners, led by University of the Philippines lawyers Harry Roque and Merlin Magallona and Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros, asked the High Court to “immediately issue a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary prohibitory injunction prohibiting Respondents from implementing or invoking Republic Act 9522.” (Download the petition.) –-Ellen Tordesillas