THE private jet carrying former president Rodrigo Duterte left the country last night for The Hague in the Netherlands, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a late night press briefing.
Marcos said the plane carrying the former president took off at 11:03 p.m. and was “en route to The Hague, in The Netherlands, allowing the former president to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs.”
Marcos, in the briefing that was held shortly after the plane left, said the former president was initially placed under government custody at Villamor Air Base after a warrant for his arrest was served shortly after he arrived in Manila from Hong Kong at 9:20 a.m.
“Mr. Duterte was arrested in compliance with our commitments to Interpol. Hours before his arrival (from Hong Kong), Interpol Manila received an official copy of the ICC warrant. This prompted the Prosecutor General of the Department of Justice to serve the warrant,” Marcos said, adding that he was informed around 3 a.m. that there is already a physical copy of the warrant.
He said that while the warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Philippines did not cooperate with, help, or respond to the international tribunal’s requests for assistance, including documents that it needed for the case.
The President said the country, however, was committed to respond to the Interpol’s request to help serve a warrant and arrest a person who is in the country.
“Interpol asked for help and we obliged because we have commitments to the Interpol which we have to fulfill. If we don’t do that, they will not, they will no longer help us with other cases involving Filipino fugitives abroad. This is what the international community expects of us as the leader of a democratic country that is part of the community of nations,” Marcos said.
He said responding to Interpol was not a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
“As we are a member of the community of nations, we must live up to our responsibility and the commitment we made to the community of nations and that’s what happened here. Politics does not enter into it,” he said.
He also denied that the arrest of Duterte was a form of political persecution, explaining that the complaint against his predecessor started in 2017 before the Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute and way before he became president.
