AFTER months of speculation, arguments and debates, former President Rodrigo Duterte has finally been arrested by the Interpol-Manila and the Philippine National Police (PNP), on the behest of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
For several years now, the ICC’s prosecutor’s office has been gathering evidence against the former president, in connection with charges of crimes against humanity because of the many deaths of suspects and victims in Duterte’s war against illegal drugs. All this time, both President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Justice Secretary Boying Remulla have been saying that the ICC cannot meddle with the government’s justice system for it would compromise the nation’s sovereignty. Marcos even categorically said that the government will not cooperate with the ICC.
But that was before the Unity Team became the classic disunity team that it is now.
‘The government appears to be in an extraordinary rush to send Duterte to the International Criminal Court…’
On Tuesday night, March 11, policemen and soldiers sent the former president off in a private jet with tail number RP-C5219 to The Hague, the Netherlands where the ICC is based. The sendoff happened some 15 hours after Duterte was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and detained inside the highly secured Presidential Wing building of Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.
During his brief detention, Duterte’s blood sugar level shot up and his physician recommended immediate checkup and hospitalization but the authorities rejected this. He was accompanied by his lawyer and former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea, and daughter Veronica, who were with him on his Hong Kong trip. People who would like to see him, like his other daughter Vice President Sara Duterte and close associate Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, were not permitted inside the air base.
There are several things worth asking about this whole arrest-and-fly episode. The government appears to be in an extraordinary rush to send Duterte to the International Criminal Court, despite the fact that his lawyers have petitioned the Supreme Court assailing the arrest warrant issued by the ICC, along with this foreign court’s jurisdiction in the Philippines, over Filipinos.
The Supreme Court spokesperson said that at 4:27 p.m. on March 11, the High Tribunal received a Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition with Prayer for the Issuance of Temporary Restraining Order and/or Writ of Preliminary Prohibitory and Mandatory Injunction filed by the former president Duterte and Sen. Ronald dela Rosa.
The police and the military were obviously under orders to get rid of the former president, send him flying to The Hague, before the SC could even act on the petition.
The SC petition could have prevented President Bongbong Marcos’ surrender of his predecessor to the ICC but there was lack of material time. However, the High Court can still rule on the primal question raised by Duterte and Dela Rosa — did the Philippine government’s withdrawal on March 17, 2019 from the Rome Statute that created the ICC, effectively terminate the ICC’s jurisdiction over the country and its nationals?
