
Originally Posted by
MugenRR
Read. Clarified.
In refusing to issue an ADO to Arroyo, De Lima pointed out that most of the countries the congresswoman was planning to visit had no extradition treaty with the Philippines.
But Santiago downplayed the issue of extradition, saying the absence of which would not necessarily prevent the Philippine government from going after a fugitive from justice or a person with a pending case.
“If the applicant is accused of a non-bailable offense and there is no extradition treaty between her state of destination and the Philippines, her mere failure to return might result in a defeat of justice, but it will not be a threat to national security,” she said.
Santiago described an extradition treaty as a contract between nations to turn over a wanted person staying in the other state’s jurisdiction.
“It is not so simple to argue that if the applicant goes to a country that has no extradition treaty with the Philippines, there is no way of getting her back,” she said.
“The matter of extradition can be either contractual or political. This means that even if we have no extradition treaty with another country, if that country wants to extradite the applicant, there is no rule in international law that prohibits a country from extraditing a foreign national as an exercise of state sovereignty.”
“It’s not difficult to get a Filipino, unless, of course, there is an existing conflict between the Philippines and the other country, if the relationship is bad,” she said. “But otherwise, I don’t know what the big fuss is all about.”