Fans can rejoice while critics will still have to wait since Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who has been elected as a judge in the International Criminal Court, will not resign until she is called to serve at the ICC.
In a letter to the Commission on Elections, Santiago said she "regrets" that she cannot determine the date of her resignation.
This, after reports that the Comelec needed to know whether she would resign so it could prepare ballots for 12 or 13 vacancies at the Senate.
“Of course, I will not resign from the Senate, until the ICC calls me to duty. Hence, I respectfully submit that even only out of prudence, the 2013 ballot should list only 12 vacancies for senators,” she said in a letter to Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr.
Although elected to the ICC in December last year, Santiago cannot assume her post in the Hague yet. Incumbent judges at the ICC have to dispose of pending trials and appeals before they can step down. “Then, and only then, will the new judge be called to duty,” she said.
Santiago added ICC president Sang-Hyun Song wrote newly-elected judges in February telling them “not to make any irreversible commitments for the time being which could terminate your current professional engagements with a view to future engagement at the Court. “
“If I resign from the Senate before the ICC calls me for duty, it will have no responsibility for my income or professional accommodation. Furthermore, I have no discretion on when I should report to the ICC. This is why I cannot resign from the Senate until the ICC indicates that I should do so,” she said. Santiago was elected to her second consecutive six-year term as senator in 2010.