04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly Commonwealth period, which was not a part of the territory of the United States although subject to its sovereignty. As a state, it was a signatory to several treaties and international agreements, such as the Charter of the United Nations of January 1, 1942, and a participant in several conferences such as that held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, on July 1-22, 1944, on the GATT . As the U.S. Supreme Court noted in Hooven & Allison Co. v. Evatt, the adoption of the 1935 Constitution prepared the way for the complete independence of the Philippines and the government organized under it had been given, in many aspects, by the United States "the status of an independent government which has been reflected in its relation as such with the outside world." Similarly, the Supreme Court of the Philippines held in Laurel v. Misa that "the Commonwealth of the Philippines was a sovereign government although not absolute."[79] (Emphasis supplied) Thus,once the MOA-AD is signed, the MILF, as the acknowledged representative of the BJE, can exercise the rights of the BJE as a state. The MILF, on behalf of the BJE, can then demand that the Philippines comply, under the principle of pacta sunt servanda, with the express terms of the MOA-AD requiring the Philippines to amend its Constitution to conform to the MOA-AD. Under the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the Philippines cannot invoke its internal law, including its Constitution, as justification for non-compliance with the MOA-AD, which operates as a treaty between the GRP and the BJE.[80] Thus, under international law, the Philippines is obligated to amend its Constitution to conform to the MOA-AD, whether Congress or the Filipino people agree or not. If this Court wants to prevent the dismemberment of the Philippines, a dismemberment that violates the Constitution, the Court should not wait for the GRP Panel to sign the MOA-AD. Once the MOA-AD is signed, international law steps in resulting in irreversible consequences extremely damaging to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Philippines. No subsequent ruling or order of this Court can undo this terrible damage, or put back a dismembered Philippines. The initialed MOA-AD already contains definitive and settled propositions between the GRP and the MILF, and all that is lacking are the signatures of the GRP and MILF representatives to make the MOA-AD a binding international agreement.[81] Under these circumstances, the petitions certainly present an actual justiciable controversy of transcendental importance to the nation. The forum for the resolution of any dispute between the GRP and the MILF under a signed MOA-AD will not be this Court but the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is not bound to respect the Philippine Constitution. The MILF, under the sponsorship of any member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)[82] that recognizes the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ,[83] can bring the dispute to the ICJ. The OIC Special Envoy for the Peace Process in Southern Philippines, Ambassador Sayed Elmasry, who is also the Secretary-General of the OIC, is a signatory to the MOA-AD. Above the space reserved for his signature are the words "ENDORSED BY." A party to the Statute of the ICJ, like the Philippines, is bound by the ICJ's determination whether the ICJ has jurisdiction over a dispute.[84] In deciding the elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 102/203