Miriam on ICJ poll: It's all power play

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who lost her bid for a seat in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), lamented yesterday that the poll exercise turned out to be a power play and compromises among countries, especially the developed ones.

In a statement, Santiago said she lost her ICJ bid by “a hairsbreadth” as she won in the popular United Nations’ General Assembly, but did not make it in the elite UN Security Council.

Established in 1945 under the UN Charter, the ICJ settles legal disputes between states and gives advisory opinions on legal questions that have been referred to it by authorized UN bodies or specialized agencies.

The senator said her “narrow and colorful defeat makes the 15-member ICJ an all-male enclave,” despite repeated UN advocacy of gender balance.

“It was a hard campaign, but ultimately it was a power game.  The developed states tend to vote for countries where they have interests to protect, such as foreign investments, use of natural resources, and a big export market.  As a developing state, we have no such cards to play,” Santiago said, after arriving Friday midnight from the UN headquarters in New York.

Her office said the Philippine delegation led by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN Hilario Davide put up such a brave battle that after the first round of voting, after four judges had already been elected, Santiago’s strong showing compelled the voting to reach four rounds.

But Santiago said “big countries like China and France refused to support the Philippines while small countries like Indonesia and Vietnam remained staunch Philippine allies up to the end. Probably none of the Big Powers voted for the Philippines.”

She said the Big Powers are the five permanent members of the Security Council – the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Moscow, and China.

“Reportedly, the US considers the Philippines negligible in world affairs. The UK and France prefer to support former colonies, where they have big investments.  China has big investments to protect in Jordan.  Moscow is sore at the Philippines because we did not vote for it in the last Security Council elections.  All this is realpolitik,” Santiago said.

Santiago, a former UP international law professor, said “realpolitik is politics based on the national interest and on power, in other words, practical politics.”

“The United Nations keeps advocating gender balance but now in the ICJ there are 15 judges without a single woman judge. This shows that the UN does not advance international interest as much as the national interests of powerful countries,” she said.

Santiago, who is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that her recent practical lesson in realpolitik had colored her perception of treaties between the Philippines and certain developed states.

“Powerful states promote international law only when it works in their favor.  For example, they advocate gender balance on paper, but reject it when it hinders their own national interests,” she said.

 Santiago noted that while in the General Assembly some 143 states promised in writing to vote for the Philippines, she got only 107 votes, still the required majority, but it showed that some states could not be trusted to keep their promises.

“In the same manner, the Philippine mission received nine written promises to vote for the Philippines in the Security Council, but only five voted for me. Fortunately, I was already warned that UN diplomacy can be accompanied by betrayal, because of the practice of secret balloting,” she said.