Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday, March 17 said the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss the petition challenging the validity of President Duterte’s unilateral withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) showed that it acknowledged the limitations on the power of the Chief Executive.

Drilon, who was among the personalities who filed the petition along with other current and former opposition senators—Francis Pangilinan, IV, Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes IV and Paolo Benigno Aquino, made the statement as he weighed in on the preliminary statement coming from the Supreme Court.

“While the Supreme Court dismissed the petition questioning the validity of the Philippine government’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute for being moot and academic, the High Court acknowledged the limitations on the power of the President as chief architect of foreign policy,” Drilon said.

The SC, in a press statement said “The decision acknowledged that the President, as primary architect of foreign policy, is subject to the Constitution and existing statutes.”

Therefore, according to the SC, “the power of the President to withdraw unilaterally can be limited by the conditions for concurrence by the Senate or when there is an existing law which authorizes the negotiation of a treaty or international agreement or when there is a statute that implements an existing treaty.”

Drilon said this means there is clear recognition of the limitations of the President even when it junked the petition for being moot and academic.

“This is a clear recognition of the limitations of the power of the President with respect to foreign policy,” the minority leader said.

“Most striking is the acknowledgement that the power of the President to withdraw’ ‘unilaterally’ can be subject to limitations by the Senate,” the former justice secretary added.

Drilon, nevertheless, described the SC decision on the issue “highly interesting” and will wait for the full text of the ruling before he makes a comment “more extensively.”

Malacañang earlier welcomed the SC decision as presidential spokesperson Harry Roque urged the ICC “ not to waste time and resources” on investigating the Duterte administration.

“It will not prosper as we do not recognize ICC jurisdiction over the Philippines,” Roque said, adding that there is proof that the country’s domestic legal and judicial processes are functioning normally.

It was in March 17, 2019 when Duterte announced that the Philippines is officially withdrawing from the ICC.

Duterte made the decision after the ICC opened a preliminary examination on the ongoing drug war in the Philippines following reports of extrajudicial killings during police’s anti-narcotics operations.