Palace after Sen. Imee Marcos-led probe: Duterte arrest legal
International Criminal Court (L) and former President Rodrigo Duterte (ICC and official Facebook page of Rody Duterte)
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang and a lawyer accredited to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday rejected claims by supporters of former President Rodrigo Duterte that he was illegally surrendered to the international tribunal, saying that everything was done by the book.
Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro, the Palace press officer, and lawyer Joel Butuyan were reacting to statements made on Thursday by Sen. Imee Marcos, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s elder sister, and other senators during a Senate foreign affairs committee inquiry into last week’s arrest of Duterte for crimes against humanity in his brutal drug war.
Castro said Malacañang was thankful that the Senate opened a probe as this would be an opportunity for the government to explain the legality of Duterte’s March 11 arrest and detention in an ICC facility in The Hague, the Netherlands, where he will await trial.
“People will be more enlightened as to what happened, and the law was explained for everyone,” Castro said.
READ: Imee Marcos blasts Duterte arrest; administration execs push back
READ: ICC EXPLAINER: Fine points in the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
In a carefully planned operation, authorities arrested the 79-year-old ex-president on his arrival from Hong Kong and immediately whisked him to the nearby Villamor Air Base, where he was held for over 12 hours before he was flown on a chartered jet to The Hague.
Butuyan, who spoke at a press briefing alongside Castro, said the arrest and the surrender of Duterte by Philippine authorities to the ICC were legally validated by Republic Act No. 9851, the 2009 law penalizing crimes against humanity, as well as Article 59 of the Rome Statute, the treaty which created the international tribunal.
Section 17 of RA 9851 gives the Philippine government discretion to directly surrender a suspect to an international court once a warrant is issued, he said.
Vice President Sara Duterte was one of the loudest critics of the arrest. She said it was unlawful because no Philippine court had issued a warrant against her father.
“There was a warrant of arrest and it was issued by an international court where we were a member, so this is not a warrantless arrest,” Butuyan said.
The ICC maintains that it could try Duterte for crimes against humanity, specifically murder, that were committed when the Philippines was still a state party to the Rome Statute — from November 2011 to March 2019 — which covers his years as Davao City mayor and president of the country.
Article 59 of the treaty states that local authorities were not obligated to present Duterte before a local court to examine the legality of his arrest on an ICC warrant as long as its key provisions — verifying the identity of the suspect and upholding his rights — are observed, Butuyan explained.
He said Duterte was read his Miranda Rights and that he had two lawyers with him then, “so the substance of Article 59 was actually complied with.” Butuyan added that a local court order was not necessary for Duterte’s arrest under the Rome Statute.
Butuyan, an Inquirer columnist, said that the former president was given more privileges than ordinary suspects, which were “over and beyond what is required by law.”
“So, in substance, nothing was violated and the implementation of the warrant of arrest was valid,” he said.
Reacting to a GMA News report that Duterte allegedly attempted to apply for asylum in China while he was in Hong Kong, which was apparently rejected by Beijing, Castro said Malacañang was unaware of that.
“We did not receive any word about that. That’s not the information that the Palace got,” Castro said, adding that they only received information about Duterte’s return from Hong Kong.
Temporary liberty
Duterte’s lead counsel, British-Israeli Nicholas Kaufman, hinted that he would seek temporary liberty for the former president, who will turn 80 next Friday. He said a petition for such during the pretrial phase was “par for the course” in the ICC, but he did not say when he would file it.
“In nearly every case, an application for interim release is submitted. I’ll file it when I feel it is appropriate,” Kaufman said in the Netherlands in reports by local news outlets.
Duterte should even be sent home, he added.
“Why should he not go back? So, as far as I’m concerned, he’s being illegally detained here, and he should go back to the Philippines as soon as possible,” Kaufman said.
He said that during Duterte’s first week in detention, he was helping the ex-leader’s “humanitarian needs and concerns.”
Who’s funding defense?
Duterte’s former executive secretary, Salvador Medialdea, who remains hospitalized in The Hague for an undisclosed ailment, is another member of the defense team. The vice president said he had undergone a “medical procedure” after he fell ill on Tuesday.
Regarding the funding for the legal team, Kaufman said it has not been decided yet on whether Duterte would seek aid from the ICC or privately paid for.
He said Duterte’s supporters may “gladly give out of their own pockets” to help fund his defense.
Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, another lawyer accredited to the ICC, has not been included in Duterte’s defense team by the vice president.
Roque said on Facebook Live on Thursday that he had filed an application for political asylum, which he had earlier explained had been prompted by alleged political persecution in the Philippines.
