National Summit on International Humanitarian Law in the Philipppines 27 Philippines is a condition for initiating criminal of international crimes such as command proceedings. The practice internationally is to responsibility, non-prescription of crimes and deferto the territorial or the national State, should irrelevanceofofficial capacity. such State initiate proceedings, or to allow such Should the Philippines decide to take cognizance States first opportunity to doso. of a prosecution for these core crimes, a number of general principles will cometoplay. SenateBill on IHL The Philippines appearsto be oneof those States wherea bill is pending that seeks precisely such Principle of Legality nationalization of the core crime. In Comm. Anotherprincipleof international law whichis the Mamauag’s view, this is not necessary because of Principle of Legality states that there is no crime the incorporation clause in the Philippine if no law makesit a crime andalso there is no Constitution that makestreaties the laws and the penalty if no law providesforit. adoption clause therein that makes generally accepted principles of international law part ofthe In the Philippines, this principle is satisfied by the laws of the land. Comm. Mamauaghails the application of customary international law Senate’s passage onthird reading of the measure recognizing the existence of core crimes and codifying international humanitarian law within penalizing them. Also, due to the provisionsof the the country’s legal system. Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, which in their entirety already customary IHL on international The bill was authored by Senator Richard J. armedconflicts (except CommonArticle 3). Gordon, Senate Bill 2669 which defines and international Comm. Mamauagadded: “But our experience in humanitarian law andother serious international the Commission is that reliance on customary crimes and designating special courts. international law is doomedto fail because it penalizes crimes against represents a higher standard ofIHL than thatfor The bill states: “There is a need to codify internal armedconflicts. The absence of an IHL international crimes within the domestic legal enforcement regimefor internal armedconflicts system to ensure that those who commit warcrimes, is giving usdifficulty in the exercise ofourpower genocide and other crimes against humanity are to investigate complaintsfor IHL violations,ifthe not afforded impunity for their acts”. rate ofdismissal ofcases wefiled in court is any indication. But this alone will not stop us from The core of Senate Bill 2669 seeks to define three international crimes, namely: doing ourjob”. war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; to provide Challenge for their prosecution in the domestic courts; and “The reason for this gathering is precisely to impose imprisonmentdependingonthe gravity because there is no enforcement regime in IHL of the crime committed. Thebill also introduces for internal armed conflict. Thus, the challenge into the country’s penal system principles of before us now is: to improve the IHL norms, criminal responsibility unique to the prosecution standards and rules to be followed in