Senate Deputy Minority Leader Rodante Marcoleta announced he will no longer file a treason complaint against retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, saying he has already reached his own conclusion on the matter.
Speaking on his television program, Marcoleta explained that he initially believed Carpio had a broader grasp of the issue, but later decided that pursuing a formal case was unnecessary.
Carpio, for his part, maintained that treason cannot be committed during peacetime, calling it a basic legal principle taught even to first-year law students.
Marcoleta rejected this view, declaring publicly that Carpio had, in his opinion, committed treason by betraying the country and surrendering parts of Philippine territory.
The dispute stems from Marcoleta’s claim that Carpio was responsible for “giving away” nearly 242,000 square nautical miles of Philippine waters.
The allegation relates to a 2011 Supreme Court ruling penned by Carpio that upheld Republic Act No. 9522, which redefined the country’s archipelagic baselines in line with international maritime standards.
Carpio has consistently argued that classifying waters beyond the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea as national territory would contradict the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and customary international law.