Imee says she hasn’t talked with Pres. Marcos about Duterte’s arrest

Senator Imee Marcos on Thursday said she has not yet discussed the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte with her brother, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. 

“No po,” Imee said in an ambush interview when asked if she had spoken to the President already. 

The senator led the Senate foreign relations committee’s inquiry into Duterte’s arrest on Thursday where she questioned Cabinet officials and law enforcement officials about the basis and the process of Duterte’s arrest. 

Asked if she is satisfied with the justification of the government officials, Imee said, “Mainit ‘yung ulo nu’ng iba e. Nakakatawa. Parang kailangan nila ng group chat.” 

For the senator, there was no due process in the arrest of the former president. 

“Kayo ang humatol. parang wala, ‘di ba?” she quipped. 

During the hearing, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla defended the arrest of Duterte. 

While he admitted that the International Criminal Court no longer has jurisdiction over the Philippines, Remulla said that the Philippine government did not surrender Duterte to the ICC as a state, but it only adhered to International Humanitarian Law. 

“As non-members of the ICC and as a state, the ICC has no jurisdiction over us as a country, but over the individuals who may have committed crimes that violate International Humanitarian Law,” Remulla said. 

“That is a universal value being held by the whole world today. That people cannot cross borders and hide behind boundaries so that they can run away from the law. International Humanitarian law is something adopted— the principles are adopted by more than 150 countries around the world,” he added.

Remulla further cited Republic Act 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.

“The International Humanitarian Law is the domestic law that we follow in recognizing the warrant of arrest issued against Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” he said. 

The senator also questioned the legality of the International Criminal Police Organization’s diffusion, arguing that this is not yet verified unlike the Interpol’s red notice.

Duterte is currently in ICC’s custody in The Hague, Netherlands after Philippine authorities served the warrant of arrest against the international tribunal.

In a press briefing late in the evening of March 11, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos said the arrest was done “because Interpol asked us to do it and we have commitments.”

This was contrary to Marcos’ previous statements that he would not let the ICC serve any arrest warrant against Duterte as he does not recognize its jurisdiction over the Philippines. 

During Duterte’s term in 2019, the Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute or the treaty that established the ICC, after the tribunal started a probe into his drug war

According to the arrest warrant, the ICC pre-trial chamber found reasonable grounds to believe he was "individually responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder" in connection with the killings blamed on his war on drugs.

It stated that the Duterte Death Squad (DDS) and Philippine law enforcement personnel under his leadership targeted persons allegedly involved in drug-related criminal activities.

Government records show that there were at least 6,200 drug suspects killed in police operations from June 2016 to November 2021, but several human rights groups have refuted this and say that the number may have reached as much as 30,000 due to unreported related killings.—LDF, GMA Integrated News