INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ELECTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANILA 002430 SIPDIS PASS TO L/UNA, TODD BUCHWALD, HEATHER SCHILDGE E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/28/2018 TAGS: UNGA UNSC SUBJECT: INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ELECTION REF: STATE 112227 Classified By: Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney, Reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (U) The following information on Senator MIRIAM Defensor Santiago, candidate for a seat on the International Court of Justice (ICJ),is submitted as requested by reftel. As per reftel, basic background information on Senator Santiago is not provided. ¶2. (U) Senator Santiago is a vocal advocate for justice, human rights, and the rule of law. She is a passionate crusader against government corruption, and in the rough and noisy world of Philippine politics, has remained untainted by corruption scandals. Santiago believes that all Philippine public officials, elected or appointed, first should have to pass a civil service examination, and she recently filed a bill to abolish political dynasties. As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she successfully steered the ratification of the ASEAN charter through the Senate this year. She lamented the Burmese Junta's atrocious record on human rights but expressed the hope that a determined effort by the Philippines in the Charter's human rights body would yield positive results in Burma. Santiago supports the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and filed on October 22 a resolution urging President Arroyo to transmit the statute to the Philippine Senate for ratification proceedings. ¶3. (C) Senator Santiago avidly supported the Senate's ratification of the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in 1999. In late 2005, she initiated a Congressional move to abrogate the agreement after the U.S. government turned down the Philippines' request for custody over the four servicemen accused in the controversial November 2005 Subic rape case. After a briefing at the U.S. Embassy and a visit to the accused servicemen, Senator Santiago dropped her efforts to abrogate the VFA. In a recent investigation into the U.S. military presence in Mindanao and alleged U.S. involvement in military operations there, she stressed that the claims were not substantiated by eyewitnesses. The Senator has criticized the U.S. for exceeding the limits of self-defense by attacking Afghanistan in the aftermath of September 11. ¶4. (C) Senator Santiago has publicly speculated that a Democratic victory in the upcoming U.S. elections would likely result in U.S. policy changes toward the VFA that will be more favorable to the Philippines because Senator Obama "grew up in Asia." She also believes the U.S. will rethink its position on the Rome Statute in part because of U.S. attempts to hold Sudan's regime accountable for its human rights violations in Darfur. She has said that the U.S. government's desire to find an effective forum for prosecuting Sudanese war criminals will outweigh U.S. concerns over frivolous or politically motivated prosecutions of U.S. military and civilian leaders engaged in peacekeeping missions abroad and lead the U.S. to sign the Rome Statute. ¶5. (C) Senator Santiago is seen as an active legislator, popular among those segments of the population whose causes she has championed to improve human rights, governance, health, and education. For example, she has authored or sponsored several bills that have passed into law, including the Anti-Rape Law of 1997 that refined and expanded the definition of rape; and the Indigenous Peoples' Act, which guarantees the integration of indigenous peoples into mainstream society. On foreign policy issues, Senator Santiago has shown courage, pressing for needed changes even in the face of opposition. She sponsored the recently ratified, and domestically controversial, Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement that the treaty's proponents hope will boost Philippine exports and allow more Philippine nurses to work in Japan. Santiago acknowledged opponents' criticism of certain aspects of the treaty as flawed, but noted, "Unfortunately we live in the world as it is, not as it ought to be." Her defense of the treaty's constitutionality persuaded undecided senators to vote in favor of ratification. ¶6. (C) A strong personality, Senator Santiago has been occasionally given to acerbic comments. She said in a televised Senate hearing, "China invented civilization in the East, but as well it invented corruption for all of human civilization." She subsequently apologized for that remark. After learning in 2006 that her name had been removed from the short list of candidates for Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, she declared, "I am irate. I am foaming at the mouth. I'm homicidal. I'm suicidal. I'm humiliated, debased, degraded. And not only that, I feel like throwing up to be living my middle years in a country of this nature." KENNEY