SEN. Imee Marcos yesterday said the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte was allegedly a “group effort” planned by his brother’s administration as early as May 2024.
Marcos, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said this was among the findings gathered by the panel during the three hearings that it conducted in relation to the arrest and surrender of Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) last March 11.
She said the committee was able to plot the sequence of events related to Duterte’s arrest based on the testimonies of resource persons who attended the hearings.
The findings, she said, prove that the Duterte’s arrest was premeditated, contrary to the statements of Malacañang officials who have been saying that the arrest was spontaneous and was strictly prompted by the arrest warrant issued by the ICC and coursed through the Interpol.
Marcos said the plot supposedly started on May 2024 when the Department of Justice came out with a report on the possible arrest of the former president and ended when the ICC arrest warrant was served on the former president at Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on March 11 upon his arrival from Hong Kong.
She did not give additional details of her panel’s findings, saying she will bare the specifics today in a press conference.
Marcos insisted that the former president’s arrest was illegal, echoing arguments of the Duterte camp that he was no longer under the jurisdiction of the ICC following Manila’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute, which created the international tribunal, effective March 2019.
The Committee on Foreign Relations held its first hearing on the arrest of the former president on March 20. It released its initial findings a week later, saying that Duterte’s apprehension was premeditated.
It called for a second hearing on April 3 but Cabinet officials who were invited deliberately did not attend the hearing after Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said that they are not compelled anymore to attend as all questions have already been answered during the first hearing, and that the committee has already released its initial findings.
Following the intercession of Senate President Francis Escudero, a third hearing was held on April 10, which was attended by Palace officials.
Marcos said she is still uncertain if she will agree to the requests of Duterte’s allies in the Senate to hold another hearing.
Palace press officer Claire Castro said the senator’s pronouncements were no longer a surprise, noting that her stand on the issue has been clear even before she started the Senate hearings.
”Hindi na po siguro kataka-taka kung ganiyan po ang kaniyang magiging panuran, ang kaniyang opinion. Bago pa naman po siguro nag-hearing ay makikita na po natin kung saan ba ang gawi ni Senator Imee Marcos (Her pronouncement is no longer surprising. Even before the Senate investigation, we already knew where this was headed),” she said.
Meanwhile, in a press conference in Carcar, Cebu on Sunday, Marcos said Duterte’s arrest was “apparently politically motivated” and part of efforts to bring down the Dutertes after Vice President Sara Duterte parted ways with her brother, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
She said she was able to obtain a copy of a supposed “Lakas party agenda” dated April 22, 2025 allegedly showing that the party has allotted P8 billion for the “Oplan Horu” campaign to attack the Dutertes.
The plan, she said, purportedly includes the participation of the PNP, the Congress, former senator Sonny Trillanes and the ICC supposedly to obtain a warrant of arrest and to initiate the impeachment of the vice president.
The funds would supposedly come from the government’s AICS, AKAP, and TUPAD funds
“So, I have a copy of the actual plan. It’s very clear. So first, there appears to be some political motive. Second, there’s a coordinated cover-up of the details and motives behind the arrest (of the former president),” she said.
She also said that she has information that the administration has launched a “communication plan to divert this week and the following weeks” the public’s attention
from Duterte’s arrest to issues related to the West Philippine Sea and the alleged employment of trolls in the country by China.
“Perhaps not expecting the political backfire, there is now an effort to suppress news and information,” she added. – With Jocelyn Montemayor
