IT appears that President Bongbong has decided that we are not going to rejoin the assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute — the statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). While I would have preferred us reviving our membership and so contributing to strengthening the international legal or-der, particularly against the egregious crimes dealt with by the statute, we really do not need it to be able to deal with the very delicts that the ICC was created to try.

The three major titles — war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity — are defined in Republic Act 9851 in exactly the same way as they are defined in the relevant covenants and international agreements. So, the systematic attack on a civilian population will be a crime against humanity, whether the attack should consist in killing, deporting, enslaving, raping. In such a case the accused will not be charged with murder, or homicide or rape. He will be charged with a crime against humanity through any of the acts enumerated in the law.

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