ILL MIRIAM SKIPS ICC OATH

The ICC has granted permission to Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago to defer her oath-taking at The Hague, Netherlands, scheduled for Friday, 9 March 2012.

All six newly-elected ICC judges, including Santiago, are scheduled to take their oath, after undergoing a three-day seminar on the work of the ICC.

After the seminar, the judges are scheduled to return to their respective countries, and to wait for the ICC to call them to duty.

The ICC also advised the new judges not to resign from their present positions in their respective countries, because the ICC does not yet know when each one will be called to report to The Hague.

Under the ICC rules, an outgoing judge is required to continue working even past retirement age, until all pending cases where the judge has participated have been finished.

Since the ICC cannot predict when a particular trial will be finished, no judge is able to tell in advance when he will be free to retire.

Thus, a new judge has to wait for at least six months, or even much longer, for a vacancy to materialize.

Santiago said that pursuant to instructions from the ICC, she will not resign from the Senate, until she has been definitely called to duty.

"In all probability, I shall be able to vote at the impeachment trial by about May," she said.

The ICC granted Santiago leave to defer her oath-taking on two medical grounds, which render her unfit for long travel and extended stay abroad.

The senator is suffering from hypertension, aggravated yesterday by a disturbance at the impeachment court, which raised her blood pressure to 190/90, as compared to normal blood pressure of 120/80.

Santiago also cited her chronic condition, known as "lazy bone marrow," which lowers her blood count and requires, at least during the impeachment trial, a weekly injection.

"Just to make sure that I shall be physically fit when I transfer residence and office to The Hague, I have already made known to the ICC president my request that of the six new judges, if possible I should be the last one to be called for duty," she said.

Santiago topped the six new judges at elections held at the UN in New York last December.