Vice President Sara Duterte — INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday (Saturday in Manila) told her relatives to secure their valuables after her brother, Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, claimed that a “search warrant” for them is now in the offing.
The Davao mayor on Friday said he has “verified information” on the search warrant for the houses of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his family, but the Davao regional police office denied such claims.
READ: Baste: Search warrants issued vs Duterte family homes
The vice president was asked about her brother’s claims in an interview shortly after the pretrial of their father before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during his administration’s drug war.
“I’ve heard about that, the search warrant for all our houses, all the members of the family,” Duterte said.
“And I mentioned to my siblings that you don’t have control over this anymore so I just told them you just secure your valuables and then allow them to do the search,” she added.
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The vice president also said they expect “planted evidence” in their houses should a search warrant be served on them.
“We’ll just have to face that as well because that is the template that they did with former congressman Arnie Teves, exactly the same template,” she said.
“I told them that it’s pointless to fight so just allow it to happen,” she added.
She also said she met her father in the ICC detention center’s visitors area, during which his father said that “there will be a day of reckoning for all.”
READ: Rodrigo Duterte: ‘There will be a day of reckoning for all’
Duterte faced the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I, composed of Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc and Judges Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and María del Socorro Flores Liera, via video link.
READ: ICC sets Duterte confirmation of charges hearing Sept. 23
The 79-year-old Duterte, clad in a blue suit and tie, sounded frail when he spoke briefly to confirm his name and date of birth.
READ: ICC sets Duterte confirmation of charges hearing Sept. 23
He was the subject of an arrest warrant from the ICC over crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Philippines between November 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019. The country was still a party to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, during this period.
In March 2018, Duterte declared the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute.
However, the withdrawal took effect a year after or in March 2019, so the ICC retained jurisdiction over alleged crimes in the Philippines based on the time when the country was still a member.
The war against illegal drugs that took place during the Duterte administration claimed at least 6,000 lives, according to official government data. But human rights watchdogs and the ICC prosecutor estimated the death toll to be between 12,000 and 30,000 from 2016 to 2019.
They said several of these cases were extrajudicial killings.