Duterte loyalists call for people power

MANILA, Philippines — Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque yesterday urged supporters of Rodrigo Duterte to gather at EDSA to protest against the former president’s arrest, which he said violates the country’s sovereignty and constitutional provisions on judicial power.

Roque, in an interview with One News, said that the gathering would serve as a means to exercise democratic rights and oppose what he called an unconstitutional arrest.

“We are calling on people to exercise their democratic rights to make their voices heard. What is at stake here is not just the rights of former president Duterte, but the rights of all Filipinos as a sovereign nation,” Roque said in Filipino.

He argued that allowing a foreign tribunal to prosecute alleged crimes committed within the Philippines undermines the country’s sovereignty and jurisdiction.

Reiterating his stance that Duterte’s arrest is unconstitutional, Roque cited the Philippines’ withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2019.

“It’s very clear that we are no longer a member of the ICC. The preliminary investigation by the ICC prosecutor was conducted after the second year of our withdrawal,” Roque said.

Additionally, Roque questioned the cooperation extended by the Philippine National Police (PNP) in carrying out the arrest, labeling it unconstitutional.

Roque revealed that he and Duterte’s legal team are filing petitions for habeas corpus and certiorari before the courts to challenge the legality of the former president’s detention.

“A habeas corpus petition because the ICC’s warrant is not a legal basis for arrest, and a certiorari petition because the cooperation of President (Marcos) and the PNP constitutes grave abuse of discretion,” he explained.

Roque also dismissed claims that the Interpol Red Notice against Duterte justifies his arrest.

“That’s absolute stupidity. A Red Notice is not an international warrant of arrest,” he said.

He further argued that there is no treaty or law requiring the Philippines to treat Red Notices as arrest warrants.

“A Red Notice only gives rise to a duty for provisional arrest, subject to extradition and local laws. It is local laws that determine whether we should cooperate,” he said.

Is the arrest legal?

Aside from Roque, Duterte’s legal counsel also raised questions about the legality of his arrest yesterday, asserting that they have yet to receive an official copy of the ICC warrant.

Former labor secretary Silvestre Bello III said in an ambush interview at Villamor Air Base that the arrest should not have occurred before the warrant was processed through the Department of Justice.

“The warrant of arrest must come first before you arrest someone. That is the legal basis,” Bello said in Filipino.

Bello confirmed that he had not yet spoken with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and had not seen the warrant himself.

“I was told this morning that there is a warrant of arrest. I asked, ‘Where is it?’ But they never showed it to me,” he said.

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group director Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III was reportedly in possession of the warrant.

“If there is a warrant, why can’t they show it to us?” Bello said.

Bello further argued that Duterte’s rights were violated, as the arrest occurred before the warrant was presented to him or his legal team.

“Basically, the person being arrested should be given a copy. They can show it to me as a lawyer, but they must also provide him a copy,” he added.

Go barred from going near Duterte

Sen. Bong Go yesterday lamented that he was prevented from going near Duterte after the arrest.

Go went to the airport with an ambulance and Duterte’s doctor, hoping to ferry the former president to the hospital for a scheduled medical procedure on Wednesday.

He said he had secured a pass allowing Duterte to be brought in the ambulance but was instead prevented from going anywhere near.

“He is 80 years old. He has complained of back pains. Let us pray for Tatay Digong’s safety and health. I am saddened by the fact that I was prevented from going near him,” Go said in an interview with One PH, adding that he appealed for special treatment for Duterte.

Go expressed concern for Duterte’s health, saying that “access to medical care is a constitutional right of every Filipino.”

Go went on several Facebook live streams yesterday to document his trip onboard the ambulance from the airport to Villamor Air Base, where Duterte was held with his partner Honeylet and daughter Kitty.

He even delivered a box of pizza at a gate of the air base, appealing to the uniformed personnel to allow him inside.

However, the guards told him he was not allowed inside, citing “instructions.”

Meanwhile, Duterte’s doctor, Agnes del Rosario, was allowed to enter, along with the box of pizza and a paper bag containing burgers.

Kitty requested the food because they had not eaten since Duterte’s arrest in the morning, Go said after phoning Kitty.

Kitty took to Instagram to post pictures of her father while in custody, claiming it was an “illegal detention.”

“I am saddened that she is exposed to this at such a young age,” Go said of Kitty.

Go defended Duterte from allegations before the ICC that he committed a state policy of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects when he was mayor in Davao City and then president.

“President Duterte only fulfilled his role as president then. He did it for the country. I am a witness to that. This is what he gets for serving the country? But he can’t do anything about it now,” Go said.

“He is a lawyer. He will follow the law. But I am hurt that this is happening to him now,” he said.

Go, who served as Duterte’s longtime aide, was mentioned in the documents submitted to the ICC for allegedly knowing about the Davao death squad when Duterte was mayor, VERA Files earlier reported.

When asked about Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who is also under ICC investigation for his role in implementing Duterte’s drug war, Go said, “As a fellow senator, I cannot speak on his behalf. He also has other matters to attend to. You may ask him.”

Dela Rosa, as of yesterday, has yet to respond to reporters’ requests for comment.

‘Unlawful’

Echoing Roque and the legal counsel, former chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo also believes that the arrest of Duterte was unlawful.

Panelo criticized the PNP for placing Duterte in government custody upon his arrival from Hong Kong.

He argued that Duterte’s arrest is illegal because the PNP based their actions on an arrest warrant issued by the ICC, which Panelo described as a “spurious” source, given that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines.

“The government action will make the arresting team as well as the public officials ordering the arrest criminally liable,” Panelo said in a statement.

He added that the PNP prevented one of Duterte’s lawyers from meeting the former president at the airport and from questioning the legal basis for the arrest.

According to Panelo, Duterte was deprived of legal representation at the time of his arrest, and the PNP could not have had a hard copy of the arrest warrant.

Duterte’s lawyers were also barred from entering Villamor Air Base, where the PNP took him after his arrival at NAIA Terminal 3.

Panelo noted that even during martial law under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., lawyers were allowed to confer with their clients wherever they were detained.

“Not only are we headed to a dictatorship, it would appear now that we have one,” Panelo said.

He also criticized the government for allowing and assisting the ICC, a foreign institution, in arresting a Filipino citizen.

‘A political maneuver’

Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte criticized the Marcos administration for illegally detaining his father upon his return to the Philippines.

In a series of social media posts, the former president’s youngest son denounced the arrest, calling it a “political maneuver.”

He alleged that the administration is using the arrest to divert attention from the alleged anomaly surrounding the national budget.

Further, he criticized authorities for allegedly insisting that his father board a plane “to who knows where,” based on an ICC warrant, which he claimed has no jurisdiction in the Philippines.

“Clowns behaving like clowns again. This has to end,” he said.

The Davao mayor also accused the administration of deliberately denying his father medical care.

“It seems to me that they are trying to murder the old man,” the mayor claimed.

Imee feels bad

Sen. Imee Marcos, also expressed sympathy yesterday for the former president.

“I was surprised by his arrest, I could not believe it. Kawawa naman si President Duterte,” Marcos said in an interview while campaigning.

She compared Duterte’s situation to her father’s exile after the 1986 people power revolution and the arrests of former presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“We have never learned our lesson. It’s already a cycle of political bickering. Our lives did not improve from politicking,” Marcos said in Filipino. — Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Emmanuel Tupas