Sara Duterte: Why put interim release provision if it won’t be used?

Vice President Sara Duterte addresses the people gathering outside the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in this file photo taken on March 14, 2025. — Photo by Agence France-Presse

SAN FERNANDO, PAMPANGA — Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday questioned the purpose of an interim release provision in the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it could simply be denied and not be granted for her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, whom she described as an ailing 80-year-old.

Sara made the pronouncement after the ICC prosecution “strongly opposed” the former president and his lawyers’ request for interim release to a still undisclosed country.

READ: ICC prosecutors: Duterte’s jurisdiction challenge ‘fundamentally flawed’

“To me, as a lawyer, why did you put a provision of interim release in your law if you weren’t going to give it to the accused? Especially with someone who’s already 80 years old, in need of an assistant and caregiver… that is a huge question,” said Duterte in Filipino during a media interview.

According to Sara, her father being detained is already an “injustice,” as other countries allow the right to bail but not the ICC.

“And now you have an interim release but you don’t give it, so it seems like they are for human rights but they don’t provide it,” said Duterte.

Sara then denied that her father continues to pose a threat to witnesses of his alleged crimes against humanity, stating that he has never lifted a finger against them when he was still in the Philippines.

She also questioned the basis of using her influence as vice president, and her family’s statements against the ICC as basis for denying Rodrigo Duterte’s request for interim release.

“Maybe what they should be basing their judgment on is the actions and statements of the accused. And what the country where he will be released to says,” said Sara.

“It is very wrong that they would use the family’s statements as a reason to oppose an accused’s petition,” she added.

She, however, acknowledged that it is the prosecution’s job to oppose what the defense proposes, including the request for interim release.

She also admitted that she has yet to actually read the prosecution’s opposition in full.

Rodrigo Duterte is currently detained at the ICC detention center in Scheveningen, The Hague after he was arrested for crimes against humanity he allegedly committed during his administration’s bloody war against drugs.

READ: War on drugs: The violence, scars, doubts and families it left behind

His infamous war against drugs led to at least 6,000 people dead, with human rights groups reporting at least 20,000. /das