FORMER president Rodrigo Duterte remains detained at the detention facility of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands, a court official said yesterday.
Caroline Maurel, outreach officer from the ICC Public Information and Outreach Section, made the statement amid unverified reports that he has been released and after Vice President Sara Duterte declined to comment on the reports.
“I can confirm that there is no change in the status of Mr. Duterte. He is still in the ICC detention center,” Maurel said, quoting ICC spokesperson Fadi El-Abdallah.
Maurel said that if a person detained in the ICC is released from custody, Abdallah’s office would immediately confirm it to the media and the public.
Posts circulating on social media have suggested that the 80-year-old former president was no longer in ICC detention.
The Vice President, who recently visited her father, told supporters that she knew of his status but declined to further comment, further fueling the speculations that the elderly Duterte has been released.
The former president has been in the custody of the ICC since March 11 following his arrest in Manila for the crimes against humanity charges stemming from his administration’s brutal anti-drug crackdown.
His lawyers led by Nicholas Kaufman has asked the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber 1 to grant him interim release, but later asked that the decision be deferred as they sought to get their hands on additional documents needed to bolster his case.
REQUEST GRANTED
The Pre-Trial Chamber 1, in a majority ruling made public late Wednesday evening, granted Duterte’s request to defer the issuance of its decision on his motion for interim release.
Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera dissented from the ruling, which was concurred in by Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc and Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou.
“Accordingly, and to ensure that a decision on the interim release request is appropriately informed, the majority considers it appropriate, in the circumstances, to defer the issuance of its decision on the interim release request until further action is undertaken by the defense on the matter, or until when the Chamber will deem it appropriate,” the five-page ruling stated.
The judges clarified, though, that the decision should not be considered as an indication of its ruling on the request for interim release.
“The majority emphasizes that the present decision shall not be construed as prejudging the matter to be determined in the context of the proceedings related to the interim release request, including in its eventual decision thereon,” they said.
The ICC Office of the Prosecutor has asked the Pre-Trial Chamber to junk the request of Duterte seeking to delay its ruling on their appeal for his interim release, arguing that the defense chose when to file its urgent application for release prematurely.
BOXING MATCH
PNP chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III yesterday said he will show up at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila on Sunday for his potential charity boxing match with acting Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte.
Araneta Coliseum, which Torre set as the initial venue, is not available on Sunday due to a prior schedule.
“If they are (okay) with the venue, I can show up. Its actually set at Rizal Memoriam Coliseum. A ring is already being set up there for (the) Sunday (fight),” Torre told reporters after a practice at the Camp Crame gym.
Duterte challenged Torre to a fight as he continued to criticize the PNP chief for supposedly kidnapping his father last March. He called Torre a “coward” and claimed that he is “nothing without your position.”
Torre accepted the challenge on Wednesday, but said the fight should be made a charity event, with the proceeds going to those affected by tropical cyclone Crising and the southwest monsoon.
Yesterday, the city mayor set his own condition for the boxing match.
In a video posted on his Facebook page, he said: “If you’re really serious about this charity (fight), you have laid some conditions, then let me lay my own condition for the event.”
“Ask your President (President Ferdinand Marcos Jr,) and let it come out of his mouth that all elected officials should undergo a hair follicle drug test,” he said.
Torre said some sponsors have vowed to make donations for the flooding victims.
“If he is not there, we’re just going to distribute assistance (to the victims). Whether he shows up or not, we will just continue with the distribution of aid to our kababayans,” he said.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said a casino hotel mogul has expressed willingness to open his place to serve as the venue for the charity boxing match.
“A credible source told me last night, the CEO of a popular resort casino hotel, a well-known philanthropist is willing to open their ballroom for the charity boxing match between Nick Torre and Baste Duterte,” Lacson said in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
“For the sake of the many poor flood victims, let’s do it,” he added.
He did not name who the casino owner is. – With Victor Reyes
