Manila: The Philippines is poised to ratify extradition treaties with the UK, India and Spain as officials said the move would boost efforts with the three countries against crime.
“Criminals will have fewer places to run and hide in once these treaties become effective,” Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said as the Philippines Senate is on the verge of wrapping up formalities in the upper chamber required for recognition of the pacts with the three countries.
Under the Philippines’ Constitution, a treaty or international agreement must be concurred in by at least two-thirds of all the members of the Senate to be valid and effective.
According to Defensor-Santiago, who chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, among the issues the treaties seek to address is the practice of criminals seeking refuge in other country to evade charges. Under the extradition treaty, the contracting state parties are compelled to extradite or surrender a wanted person so that he or she could face prosecution or imposition of criminal sentence.
The Philippines’ extradition treaties with the UK, Spain, and India, adopt the “dual criminality rule”, which means that for an offense to be extraditable, it must be punishable in both the Requesting State and the Requested State.
Santiago said that all three extradition treaties have a retroactive effect.
“The treaties are applicable to offenses committed prior to the entry into force of the treaties. This means that we can extradite the plunder criminals if they flee to the UK, Spain, or India, even though the plunder was committed before the effectivity of the extradition treaties,” the senator said.
Currently, among the countries where the Philippines have a standing extradition treaty are Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Micronesia, Switzerland, Thailand, and the USA.
“The extradition treaties with India, Spain, and the United Kingdom will strengthen our bilateral relations with them, particularly in our common fight against criminality, our common goal of protecting our national security, and our common quest for justice,” Santiago said.
The treaties would likewise also fulfil the Philippines’ international obligations under multilateral treaties like the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, which obligates state parties to strengthen cooperation with other states in the field of extradition, mutual legal assistance, and law enforcement.
For his part, Senate President Franklin Drilon said the passage of the three countries would address, among other crimes, child trafficking and prostitution.
He pointed out that treaties with these three countries had not been approved during the 15th Congress due to the lack of number of Senators in attendance when they were under consideration.
Drilon said that side from addressing the practice of criminals in fleeing from country to country to evade arrest and face prosecution, another issue that the extradition treaty will address is the involvement of foreign predators in child prostitution cases in the Philippines.
He referred to a BBC investigation on child pornography in the Philippines that revealed that several British nationals organised the systematic sexual abuse of Filipino children. The report followed a British-led international police operation across 14 countries busted a paedophile ring that preys on Filipino children, with 139 British nationals among the 733 suspects.
Drilon said that the involvement of the Philippine police, who worked with UK National Crime Agency, along with members of the Australia, United States police force in the operation, could have been improved had an extradition treaty with Britain been in effect.
“With the extradition treaties with Britain, Spain and India in place, we would be able to fully coordinate with their administrative and security agencies, resulting in the much more efficient rule of law against criminals,” said Drilon, a former justice secretary.
