VP, Rep. Duterte leave for The Hague
Vice President Sara Duterte and Rep. Paolo Duterte. —Inquirer file photos
MANILA, Philippines — The two oldest children of former President Rodrigo Duterte traveled to the Netherlands on separate flights on Wednesday, just hours after their father’s arrest and transfer to The Hague to face trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Vice President Sara Duterte left Manila at 7:40 a.m. aboard an Emirates flight to Amsterdam, her office said.
Her older brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, left around 5:45 a.m. on a Cathay Pacific flight.
READ: Former President Rodrigo Duterte now in the custody of ICC
Malacañang confirmed it had issued the Vice President’s travel authority at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
“PCO was not immediately updated as the information was initially disclosed only to limited people due to the unusual urgency and the confidentiality of the document,” the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said in a statement.
Denied entry
On Tuesday night, the Vice President was denied entry at Villamor Air Base Gate 1 when she tried to see her father before he boarded the chartered plane bound for The Hague.
Speaking to reporters, she said there were arrangements for her flight to the Netherlands and that she had to speak with her father’s lawyers.
“We will go. [The lawyers and I] will fly, and that is where we will discuss our next steps,” she said in Filipino.
The Vice President has condemned her father’s arrest, describing the developments as a “blatant affront to our sovereignty and an insult to every Filipino who believes in our nation’s independence.”
The Vice President also denied rumors that the former president sought asylum in China pending his ICC arrest.
“He did not talk to anyone from the Chinese government. And in fact, if all of you would remember, his flight with Cathay Pacific was supposedly at 4 p.m. [on Tuesday], right? He told us that he wants to adjust his flight back to the Philippines at 7 a.m.,” she explained.
“[He] was willingly surrendering himself to the jurisdiction of Philippine authorities, not the ICC,” she said.
‘Personal trip’
The House of Representatives’ Office of the Secretary General confirmed that Paolo Duterte sought clearance to be in the Netherlands and Japan for a month.
House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said he had approved the Davao congressman’s request to go on a “personal trip” to the two countries from March 12 to April 15.
The eldest Duterte scion submitted his request on March 11, with no mention of his father’s case.
“The expenditures incurred from this trip are from my personal funds alone,” Duterte wrote.
Boost to impeachment
In a related development, House Assistant Majority Leader and AKO Bicol Rep. Angelo Bongalon said the former president’s upcoming ICC trial could lead to another unexpected outcome: boosting the impeachment trial of his daughter Sara.
Bongalon will serve as one of the 11 prosecutors in the Vice President’s impeachment case, where she is accused of, among others, being a lead perpetrator of extrajudicial killings in Davao City.
The seven articles of impeachment against Duterte include committing “other high crimes, including the high crime of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.”
The complaint cited Davao Death Squad hitman Arturo Lascañas’ confession before the ICC that Duterte initiated “Oplan Tokhang” when she was Davao City mayor.
