Miriam loses in world court bid but gets praises anyway

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/07/2008 5:08 PM

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Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago failed to get a seat in the 15-member International Court of Justice after voting at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday. The senator, however, still got praises from the Philippine Mission to the UN for putting up a spirited fight.

"This is still a victory for the Philippines," Philippine Ambassador to the UN Hilario Davide said. "We may have not won the seat but our campaign heightened the awareness of the international community on the need for gender balance and empowerment of women in the world's major judicial organ."

Davide, a retired Supreme Court chief justice, said Santiago "proved herself worthy of the campaign."

"[She has] heightened the respect of the international community for herself and for her country," Davide added.

"Her candidature had aimed to achieve a representation in the Court of the form of civilization of countries in the Southeast Asian region and the mixed legal system of civil and common law, which is the sixth largest in the world," he said.

Davide said that Santiago, who attempted to follow in the footsteps of former Supreme Court chief justice Cesar Bengzon in 1966, emerged in the top five during the first round of voting.

However, she was unable to get enough votes in the Security Council. This forced subsequent rounds of voting to determine who among the four remaining candidates who will fill up the last vacant seat. Five seats were contested during the elections.

"It was a valiant campaign and an honorable loss," said Davide as he described the fight.

He added that for Santiago to be among the top five during the first round espite the fact that she was up against a reelectionist vice president of the court and for voting to go all the way to the fourth round were indications showed strength as a contender for the position.

It was because of geography

Earlier, Elmer Cato, spokesman of the Philippine Mission, said it was a question of geographical representation. Santiago was the only woman candidate and would have given the world court gender representation.

Davide, who oversaw Santiago's campaign, said that UN member-states felt that Africa needed to be represented.

Asia was already able to secure a seat with the reelection of Jordan in the first round.

Santiago, who was nominated by President Arroyo last year for one of three Asian seats, emerged among the top five candidates during the first round of voting in the General Assembly but was not able to get the required majority in the voting in the Security Council.

In order to win a seat, a candidate must be elected by majority of the 192 members of both the General Assembly and the 15 members of the Security Council.

The ICJ is composed of 15 judges who are elected for a nine year term. And to ensure continuity, five seats are elected every three years.

Absolute majority needed

Earlier, the UN News Centre announced that Santiago, Maurice Kamto of Cameroon and Sayeman Bula-Bula of the Democratic Republic of Congo were "unsuccessful" in their bids to win seats in the ICJ.

The UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council elected three new judges -- Christopher Greenwood of the United Kingdom, Antonio Augusto Cancado Trinidade of Brazil and Yusuf.

They also re-elected two judges whose terms were to expire on February 5, 2009: Ronny Abraham of France and Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh, the current vice-president of the ICJ from Jordan.

The successful candidates needed to obtain "an absolute majority of votes in the General Assembly (97) and the Security Council (8) to be elected to the ICJ." Greenwood (UK) and Trinidade (Brazil) were "elected in the first round in both the assembly and the Council." With Len Almadin Thornhill, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau, and Agence France-Presse

as of 11/08/2008 1:24 AM