Senators grill CIDG chief Torre on Duterte arrest

Senators on Thursday questioned Police Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, director of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), over the manner former President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on March 11. 

During the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations' inquiry into Duterte’s arrest, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada told Torre said he was disappointed over the videos he saw online.

“When I saw the video, it was really for me, as a citizen of this country, it was really unbelievable, it was really a big disappointment,” Estrada said. 

He recalled the way the Philippine National Police arrested him and his father, former President Joseph Estrada, in 2001.

Estrada then asked Torre to confirm if he said "hihilahin ko 'yan, hihilahin ko 'yan (I will drag him)" during the arrest.

Torre, who stressed that he arrested Duterte properly confirmed the remarks but added he was referring to former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

“It's already all optics and tactics... I made good of it, sir. Sabi ko, sir, hihilahin ko yan (I said I would drag him). And I went back to ES Medialdea, handcuffed him,” Torre said. 

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla clarified Torre was not threatening Duterte.

“The threat of hihilahin ko na yan was not towards... the former President... It ensued after a heated argument between his counsel and General Torre. In no way was the former president threatened with bodily harm,” Remulla said. 

Torre narrated that he was about to arrest Atty. Martin Delgra, Duterte’s former LTFRB chief, but the former president prevented the situation from escalating when the latter saw that the police official was serious about bringing him to the airplane. 

Senator Imee Marcos pointed out that the PNP Standard Operating Procedure indicated that there should be no torture, no force, violence, threat, or intimidation in arresting persons. 

Torre said he did it because he had to “get into their heads to make it very clear to them that we are already very serious of loading the president to the plane.”

Remulla said Torre had to do it because there was “obstruction of justice” on the part of Duterte’s lawyers.

Estrada said it was the right of Duterte to be accompanied by his legal counsels. 

The lawmaker also questioned Torre’s decision not to allow Vice President Sara Duterte to enter Villamor Airbase where Duterte was held at that time. 

“Pagpalagay natin hindi siya Vice President. She is an immediate member of the family… Hindi pa nakakulong. Anak ito. Bakit hindi nyo pinapasok?” Estrada asked.

(Let's say she's not the Vice President. She is an immediate member of the family... He has yet to be detained. She's the daughter. Why didn't you let her in?)

Marcos backed Estrada’s question and said that it is a violation of Republic Act 7438 or the Act defining the rights of persons arrested, detained, or under custodial investigation. 

“The [former] president also said na yung anak niya, yung babae, abogado ko 'yun. Papasukin n'yo. Hindi n'yo pinapasok, e abogado 'yun eh,” Imee Marcos said. 

(The former president said his daughter was also a lawyer. Let her in. You didn't let her in. She was a lawyer.)

Torre said their “mission at that time [was] to deliver him to the body who issued the warrant.” 

“I have told the [former] president that they can visit him at his detention facility because, at this time, the order of the day is to load him into a plane,” he added. 

Estrada said Torre should have given “courtesy or respect at least” to the former president. 

“The manner on how the former president was arrested because ayoko naman mangyari sa darating na panahon na magkakaroon na tayo ng ganyan Sana makapagbigay lang ng kortesiya man lang, na kausapin yung mga abogado, na kausapin yung mga members ng immediate family niya. Sana naman binigay niya ng pagkakataon,” he said. 

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 wouldn’t 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 showed 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. –NB, GMA Integrated News