Imee blasts Du30 arrest; Marcos aides push back
- “Since when did the Philippines become [a] province of The Hague?” That was Sen. Imee Marcos’ complaint about the Duterte arrest and his surrender to the ICC — which the government defended as legal and proper.
- Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the government invoked both its commitment to the Interpol, which requested assistance in arresting Duterte, and Republic Act No. 9851, the Philippine law penalizing crimes against humanity, to send the former President to the ICC in The Hague in the Netherlands.
- According to Remulla, families of victims of “wrongful deaths” in relation to Duterte’s drug war chose not to file cases in local courts because 95 percent of the cases did not have police reports. “In many cases, the deaths were recorded in the autopsy report as cardiac arrest even when the victim bore a bullet wound in the head,” he said, quoting forensic doctor Raquel Fortun.
Sen. Imee Marcos, the chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, on Thursday cited supposed flaws in the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte that allegedly made his surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC) unlawful.
The senator, the elder sister of President Marcos and a staunch ally of the ex-chief executive, pointed to issues that raised doubts on whether Duterte was given due process before he was flown to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity.
“Here we are watching as a fellow Filipino, a leader, a father, and a grandfather, a man who served this country, is taken not by his own people but by outsiders who claim to have the right to judge him,” she said.
“Since when did the Philippines become [a] province of The Hague?” Marcos added.
Officials summoned to the hearing asserted that the surrender of Duterte to the international tribunal was legal and proper.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the government invoked both its commitment to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), which requested assistance in arresting Duterte, and Republic Act No. 9851, the Philippine law penalizing crimes against humanity, to send the former President to the ICC in The Hague in the Netherlands.
Remulla said the law provides the option of repatriating a suspect wanted by the ICC through extradition, which is a legally tedious process, or through surrender. The government chose the latter, he said.
Victims’ families helpless
Speaking about the absence of a local case against Duterte, which could have been used to point out to the ICC that it did not need to try him for the thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings (EJKs), Remulla said many families of the victims were helpless during the previous administration.
He refuted Marcos’ claims that the ICC lacked jurisdiction because the Philippines’ judicial system was working.
“They had wanted to file cases but how can they do that when they do not even have a police report? We all know that in filing a complaint, it would always have to start with the police report,” Remulla said. “These cases for EJK were filed (in the ICC) during those years when it was difficult for the families’ victims to seek justice.”
According to Remulla, families of victims of “wrongful deaths” in relation to Duterte’s drug war chose not to file cases in local courts because 95 percent of the cases did not have police reports.
“In many cases, the deaths were recorded in the autopsy report as cardiac arrest even when the victim bore a bullet wound on the head,” he said, quoting forensic doctor Raquel Fortun.
“The main problem here was that in cases of killings, especially those that happened in Mindanao, there was no action from the fiscals. There were those who tried to file cases but nothing happened,” he said. “That is why they went to the ICC.”
Marcos also scored the speed by which the Philippine National Police acted on the Interpol request. She said the arresting officer could have given Duterte “reasonable time” to seek legal redress.
“Why were you so much in a hurry? What’s the penalty if we do not comply with the Interpol request immediately? Are they going to spank us?” Marcos said.
Anthony Alcantara, executive director of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, said that while they did not receive an Interpol “red notice,” they got an equivalent—a “red diffusion” or a “wanted person notice” seeking assistance to arrest a suspect.
The senator disagreed.
‘Judicial review’
She said there was a “big difference” between the two. The diffusion is sent out by the Interpol secretariat, which did not go through the commissioner, she said.
According to the senator, the arrest violated Duterte’s rights because he was brought to The Hague without being given the chance to subject the ICC warrant to a “judicial review” by a local court.
The former leader was also not shown a physical copy of the ICC arrest warrant when he was accosted after he arrived from Hong Kong on March 11, Marcos said.
The senator criticized the manner by which one of Duterte’s lawyers, Martin Delgra, was supposedly dragged away by police officers when he tried to get close to his client.
The senator also noted the supposed inconsistencies between the pronouncements by the President that his government did not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, and the cooperation shown by law enforcement.
Marcos cited a portion of the Interpol warrant, which, she said, showed the government was complicit with Duterte’s arrest.
The senator doubted statements from officials that the government did not know about the warrant of arrest against Duterte before it was sent to them at 3 a.m. on March 11.
“Are you saying that you mobilized 7,000 policemen that day based on mere gossip?” she said.
Remulla reiterated that the PNP’s actions were in compliance with the Philippines’ obligation as a member of Interpol.
Asked whether the President may have veered from his earlier pronouncements about not recognizing ICC jurisdiction, Remulla said people may change views over time.
“Our views evolve during times, at times, and I don’t know if he still has the same views up to today because we are talking about a (video) clip which was done one and a half years ago. Our minds can change, ma’am,” he said, addressing Marcos.
Malacañang on Thursday said it will not object to the attendance of Cabinet secretaries in the Senate investigation.
Palace press officer Claire Castro was confident about the validity of the actions of authorities, saying they merely complied with the law.
She also said that making them refuse to talk about Duterte’s arrest would just “bolster speculation” that the government was “hiding something.”
“So what has been done in the past wherein Cabinet secretaries were barred from attending Senate hearings—that will not be done by (the President),” she said.
“We are all after finding out the truth about this issue, and this will also give us the chance to show the public that what we did was according to the law,” she said.
Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, participated remotely via video link in Thursday’s hearing from The Hague, where she was helping prepare the legal defense of her father.
She said the apprehension of her father was “patently an illegal arrest” that was orchestrated by the administration to “demolish political opponents.”
“This is all about politics,” she said.
She said the Armed Forces of the Philippines also should bear responsibility for what happened to her father.
“And yes I believe they should bear responsibility because the military is the protector of the state and national sovereignty,” the Vice President said
She pointed specifically to the Presidential Security Command whose job was to also protect former presidents like her father because “they are like icons of our nation and they are very important individuals for a country.”
She said that based on statements made by Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., it appeared that the military won’t be made to take responsibility.
Teodoro explained to Marcos that the AFP’s mandate was to give support to the PNP.
“The operation (to arrest Duterte) is clearly a law enforcement one, and the Philippine National Police has the power to ask the armed forces to assist. And that is the extent of the participation of my department and the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” he said.
The Vice President is also implicated as a secondary respondent to the case in the ICC, for alleged EJKs during her time as Davao City mayor.
Asked if she fears that she would be arrested next, she said that it would depend on whether the warrant would be issued while she was in the Philippines or at The Hague.
If a warrant would be issued against her in the Netherlands, she would just talk to another lawyer.
“If it will be issued while I’m there in the Philippines, let’s just see what our government will do to me,” Duterte said. —WITH A REPORT FROM REUTERS
