Sara Duterte: I won’t bring dad home, Imee Marcos will

Vice President Sara Duterte (left) and Senator Imee Marcos. — Photos from Inday Sara Dutere FB page/Senate PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte said the one to bring home her father and former President Rodrigo Duterte was not her but rather her ally, Senator Imee Marcos.

Duterte made this remark in a speech to overseas Filipinos marking Independence Day in Malaysia, where she was joined by Marcos.

“Wherever I go, I bring her along because I tell her, ‘I’m not the one to bring home former President Duterte to the Philippines. Because your brother was the one to take him to the Hague, you will be the one to bring him home to the Philippines,’” she said in Filipino.

The elder Duterte was arrested and turned over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) last March to face allegations of crimes against humanity for drug war killings.

Human rights groups estimate the death toll for the former president’s anti-narcotics campaign was up to 30,000 people.

READ: Sara Duterte: Only ‘true unity’ attains freedom

The Vice President further said she had encountered many foreigners who expressed opposition to her father’s ICC arrest.

“Of those I spoke with, they all said, ‘It is unthinkable for a government to surrender its citizen to a foreign power,’” Duterte said.

“But in the Philippines, it was so easy for them to give up their former head of state. That’s why, even if I weren’t his daughter, even if I were just an ordinary citizen, I’m ashamed of what we did to our former president,” she added.

Senator Marcos’ brother, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., defended the government’s move to surrender Duterte to the international tribunal, stressing that it was part of the country’s commitment to the International Criminal Police Organization.

READ: Imee Marcos to Ombudsman: Probe gov’t execs who gave Duterte to ICC

Citing the arrest of the former president, Senator Marcos then officially left her brother’s slate in her bid for a second term in the 2025 elections, eventually receiving Vice President Duterte’s endorsement.

The elder Duterte’s confirmation of charges hearing was set for September 23.

The Vice President was in Malaysia for a “personal trip,” her office said last Tuesday. /das