The country’s justice minister denies coordinating the arrest ahead of time, despite the fact that Philippine senators on Thursday ( Mar 20 ) grilled government officials about their decision to hand former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court last week.
Duterte was taken into custody on March 11 and flown to the Netherlands the following morning on a charges of crimes against humanity related to his drug-related, tamoxifen, gang.
Secretary of Justice Jesus Remulla stated at the hearing on Thursday that the state had maintained an “arm’s size” with the ICC until Interpol received the arrest warrant.
” We have never had any contact with the ICC, whether it be through us,” he said at the reading being held by Senator Imee Marcos, a near friend of Vice President Sara Duterte’s child, who is the imprisoned ex-leader.
However, Senator Marcos, the president’s girl, directed to language in the Interpol propagation, which she claimed suggested greater cooperation.
The notice from March 10 states that” this propagation is transmitted after previous interviews with the state of the Philippines, who have agreed to cooperate with this demand for arrest.”
Remulla, however, claimed that the notice’s format was that of” a kind text” and not that it made any obvious reference to the Duterte imprisonment.
He said,” I questioned who they were talking to here because it wasn’t us when it was mentioned that they coordinated with the government of the Republic of the Philippines.”
Prior to just weeks before, the Spanish government had steadfastly and unrelentingly resisted cooperating with ICC researchers, citing their lack of authority since Duterte formally withdrawn the nation from the international organization in 2019.
Just recently, though, did that change, with new assurances from government officials that they would be required to take action if Interpol had contacted them.