SAGIP Party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta falsely claimed during a May 31 hearing of the Commission on Appointments (CA) that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “rebuked” retired Supreme Court (SC) associate justice Antonio Carpio about a complaint on the presence of Chinese vessels within Philippine territory.
Carpio never filed a petition in the ICJ. The Netherlands-based court has no mandate to handle complaints by individuals or private entities other than the cases filed by member states or organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN) such as the World Health Organization.
Marcoleta made the statement when he asked then Foreign Affairs undersecretary Carlos Sorreta if there’s a need to harmonize the 1987 Constitution and other domestic laws with public international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Sorreta – now the country’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva – answered in the affirmative, citing the 2011 SC decision in the Magallona vs. Executive Secretary case that Carpio wrote.
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In September 2020, the late Foreign Affairs secretary Albert Del Rosario announced that they would submit new evidence to the ICC, with Carpio serving as their counsel, to prove the occurrence of the alleged crimes in the Philippine territory and not just within its exclusive economic zone. He cited China’s illegal reclamation and artificial island-building in Subi Reef, saying it is within the territorial sea of Pag-asa Island in the Spratlys.
In a June 6 statement to VERA Files Fact Check, Carpio said, “After I retired from the SC, I entered my appearance as co-counsel but there were no pleadings filed after that.”
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Sources
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International Court of Justice official website, Frequently Asked Questions, accessed June 5, 2023
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Philstar.com, Ex-Philippine officials file ICC complaint vs China’s Xi Jinping, March 21, 2019
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United Nations official website, Specialized Agencies, accessed June 5, 2023
Antonio Carpio, Personal communication (Online messaging), June 6, 2023
Philippine News Agency, Photos of Carpio-Morales, Del Rosario, accessed June 12, 2023
RTVMalacañang official YouTube channel, Expanded Bilateral Meeting with President Xi Jinping 5/15/2017, May 16, 2017
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International Court of Justice official website, What is the International Court of Justice?, Oct. 23, 2017
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
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