THE Senate yesterday adopted a resolution urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) to allow former president Rodrigo Duterte to be placed under house arrest for “humanitarian reasons.”
The 80-year old Duterte is facing crimes against humanity charges before the ICC in connection with the bloody anti-drug crackdown of his administration that local and international humanitarian groups said resulted to the deaths of more than 30,000 persons.
With a vote of 15 affirmative, three negative, and two abstentions, the Senate adopted Senate Resolution No. 144, which took into consideration Resolution Nos. 17 and 18, filed respectively by Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano and Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri.
The 15 senators who voted in favor of adopting the resolution were Senate president pro tempore Panfilo Lacson, Senators Ronald dela Rosa, Christopher Go, Imee Marcos, Robin Padilla, Rodante Marcoleta, Erwin Tulfo, Joel Villanueva, Loren Legarda, Mark Villar, JV Ejercito, Jinggoy Estrada, Sherwin Gatchalain, Cayetano, and Zubiri.
Those who voted against the resolution were Senators Risa Hontiveros, Paolo Benigno Aquino, and Francis Pangilinan.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Raffy Tulfo abstained from voting.
Senators Francis Escudero, Pia Cayetano, and Manuel Lapid have left the session hall before the resolution was adopted; while Sen. Camille Villar is on maternity leave.
SRN 144 calls on the ICC to place Duterte under house arrest or a “similar arrangement” subject to ICC conditions that will restrict his liberty and would present “no risk to the integrity of the ongoing trial.”
“The Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the ICC allows persons being tried therein to interim release, subject to conditions restricting liberty, including staying at a particular address, not contacting directly or indirectly victims or witnesses and responding when summoned by an authority or qualified person designated by the ICC,” the resolution pointed out.
In pressing for Duterte’s house arrest, the senators who voted yes said the ICC should take into consideration his old age and reports that he has been showing signs of dementia.
Hontiveros, in explaining her “no” vote, said there is no indication that the ICC is remiss in its duty to take care of its detainees, thus there is no reason for Duterte to be put on house arrest.
She said reports that Duterte has been having dementia may not be true since his family members, in recent media interviews, have been quoted as saying that he is “well, even jolly” and can even discuss current issues hounding the country, including the flood control projects mess.
She said there are a number of prominent personalities like Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, both convicted for genocide and crimes against humanity, who continued to serve their sentences “well into old age.”
“And in fact, just this year, Mr. Mladic asked to be released on humanitarian grounds, claiming that he only had a few months to live. The court still denied him, ruling that his medical condition did not meet the threshold of an acute terminal illness that would justify his release,” Hontiveros said.
“Their continued detention was not seen as inhumane because their crimes were too grave, too devastating to entire communities,” she added.
She said it is ironic that the Senate is asking the ICC to consider the resolution out of “humanitarian reasons” but Duterte has always been saying that he does not care for human rights.
Meanwhile, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) and the Office of Public Counsel for Victims asked the tribunal’s Pre-Trial Chamber to junk the recent submissions of the Duterte camp for being “irrelevant” to its determination of his request for interim release.
“The Prosecution submits that the Defense Notification, in which Mr. Duterte offers (redacted) is irrelevant to the issue of whether he should be granted interim release,” said the 5-page redacted response signed by Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang dated September 18.
“The Prosecution has demonstrated through multiple filings that Mr. Duterte, if granted interim release, would be a flight risk, is likely to interfere with the proceedings, and may commit further crimes. Mr. Duterte’s offer (redacted) in no way lessen the risk he presents if granted interim release,” Niang said.
The prosecution also said that the defense has “unnecessarily” delayed the proceedings by waiting until five months after Duterte’s initial appearance to lodge its challenge regarding his fitness to stand trial.
“Given the significant delays caused by the Defense, it cannot now, in earnest, point to a potential (redacted) delay to argue that the length of Mr. Duterte’s pre-trial detention militates in favor of his release,” Niang said.
“For the above reasons, the Prosecution respectfully requests that the Chamber find that the submissions within the Defense’s Notification are irrelevant to its determination on interim release,” Niang added.
In a separate filing, the OPCV said the notification filed by Duterte’s camp is procedurally improper because “it does not notify, but in effect substantively supplements its earlier requests for interim release, now the third of its kind.”
“The Defense fails to demonstrate any change of circumstances, nor does it bring any other pertinent and unforeseen matter to the attention of the Pre-Trial Chamber that would affect or alter the fact that the continued detention of Mr. Duterte remains necessary,” it said.
With this, the OPCV also requested the Chamber to dismiss the requests in the notification filed by Duterte’s camp.
Duterte’s camp has earlier submitted medical reports to the ICC to back up its claim that he is suffering cognitive impairment and is not fit to stand the rigors of trial. – With Ashzel Hachero
