Philippine senators on Thursday grilled government officials over their decision to hand over former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) last week, with the country’s justice secretary denying he coordinated the arrest in advance.
Duterte was detained on March 11 and flown the same day to the ICC in the Netherlands to stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity related to his war on drugs that has killed thousands of people.
Speaking at Thursday’s hearing, Justice Minister Jesus Remulla said the government had kept the ICC “at arm’s length” until an arrest warrant was obtained through Interpol.
“We never, up to now, had any communication with the ICC, officially or unofficially,” he told the hearing called by Senator Imee Marcos, a close friend of Vice President Sara Duterte who is the daughter of the detained ex-leader.
But Senator Marcos, sister of President Ferdinand Marcos, pointed to language in the Interpol diffusion – a more unofficial version of the red notice – which she said suggests deeper coordination.
“This diffusion is transmitted after prior consultations with the government of the Philippines, who have agreed to comply with this request for arrest,” the notice dated March 10 reads.
Remulla, however, said the wording of the notification is a “a form letter” and not a direct reference to Duterte’s arrest.
“When it was mentioned that they coordinated with the government of the Republic of the Philippines, that made me wonder who they were talking to here because it was not us,” he said.
Until a few weeks ago, the Philippine government had steadfastly refused to co-operate with ICC investigators, citing lack of jurisdiction after Duterte pulled the country out of the international body in 2019.
The situation only changed after government officials recently said they would be obliged to act if they received a request from Interpol.
Participating in the hearing via video link from The Hague, the vice president insisted that her father’s arrest was aimed at eliminating opposition to the incumbent leader, with whom she has had a major falling out.
“This is all about politics. The administration is using government resources, the ICC to demolish the opposition,” she said.
An hour later, she held an online briefing where she urged voters to express their discontent by favouring her party’s candidates in the upcoming midterm elections in May.
“Maybe the reason the former president became the subject of an extraordinary rendition was because (they feared) the entire Philippines would vote for our 10 (senatorial candidates),” she said.
The Duterte-Marcos standoff
The feud between the Duterte and Marcos clans, simmering since they teamed up to win the 2022 presidential election, erupted into a public war this year.
The vice president was impeached last month on charges including an alleged plot to kill her former running mate. She now faces a Senate trial that will determine her political future.
Duterte also said on Thursday that she spoke with her new chief lawyer Nicholas Kaufman and told him that her family would likely seek help with legal expenses through the ICC’s legal aid fund.
“Yesterday I told him there’s a big possibility that we will apply for legal aid and this will not be a privately funded case,” she said.
