Bato case has own challenges–lawyer
A University of the Philippines (UP) legal analyst said the Supreme Court’s rules on extradition proceedings would not apply to the impending turnover of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying that his case is not an extradition but a possible surrender or transfer of custody.
“It’s an execution of a warrant of arrest issued by an international court, not a requesting state. It could be considered a possible surrender or some other concept of transfer of custody under international law,” lawyer Michael Tiu, an assistant professor at the UP College of Law, told the Inquirer on Sunday.
Tiu said the Rome Statute would still apply, pointing to the Pre-Trial Chamber’s recent ruling on the case of former President Rodrigo Duterte, which settled the issue of the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Philippines.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin confirmed that while the ICC may have issued an arrest warrant for Dela Rosa, it has not yet been formally transmitted to the Philippines through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).
Merciless killings
The families of drug war victims, who have been “waiting for the day” when Duterte’s coperpetrators would also be detained, urged the government to surrender Dela Rosa to the ICC should a warrant of arrest be issued against him.
“Bato deserves to be with Duterte in jail. Just like his master, Bato mercilessly ordered the killing of our loved ones,” Llore Pasco, whose two sons were allegedly killed in an antidrug operation, said in a statement on Saturday.
Pasco was speaking as a member of Rise Up for Life and for Rights, an organization composed of families of drug war victims and their supporters.
The group recalled that Dela Rosa, as head of the Philippine National Police under Duterte, “played a role in replicating and expanding the ‘Davao Death Squad’ model to the national level.”
But Duterte’s British-Israeli lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, on Sunday, questioned the statement of Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, who earlier said in a radio interview that the ICC has issued a warrant of arrest against Dela Rosa.
The Department of Justice had said that it is working to verify the report, noting that it has not yet seen or received a copy of the warrant. The Department of the Interior and Local Government also said that it has not received any Interpol red notice against Dela Rosa.
According to Kaufman, Remulla “appears to have developed a passion for broadcasting ICC tidbits in unsolicited fashion and with scant regard to their veracity or their effect on the judicial process.”
“The source for his latest piece of gossip relating to a supposed arrest warrant for Senator Dela Rosa would appear to be the type that reads tea leaves,” he said in a message to the Inquirer.
