MANILA: Philippine senators on Thursday (Mar 20) grilled government officials over their decision to hand former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court last week, with the country’s justice minister denying coordinating the arrest ahead of time.
Duterte was detained on Mar 11 and put on plane to the ICC in the Netherlands the same day to face a crimes against humanity charge tied to his drug war in which thousands were killed.
Speaking at Thursday’s hearing, Secretary of Justice Jesus Remulla said the government had kept the ICC at “arm’s length” until receiving the arrest warrant via 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 informal version of a red notice – that she said suggested 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 Mar 10 reads.
Remulla, however, said the wording of the notice was that of “a form letter” and not an explicit reference to the Duterte 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 just weeks ago, the Philippine government had steadfastly repeated its refusal to cooperate with ICC investigators, citing their lack of jurisdiction since Duterte pulled the country out of the international body in 2019.
That changed only with recent statements from government officials that they would be obligated to act if they received a request to do so from Interpol.
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