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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
March 11, 2025 | 5:24pm
In this March 1, 2017 file photo, President Rodrigo Duterte discuss matters with former senator Juan Ponce Enrile at Malacañan Palace.
PPD / Richard Madelo
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government is not responsible for former president Rodrigo Duterte’s legal troubles with the International Criminal Court (ICC), Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile said on Tuesday, March 11.
Duterte was arrested by authorities on an ICC warrant, facilitated through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).
While the Palace acknowledged that the Philippines is no longer an ICC member, it said that the government must still cooperate with Interpol.
“The current legal problem of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte is not caused by Philippine laws. His legal problem is caused by laws enforceable by the International Criminal Court. It is not correct to blame the Philippine government for the current legal problem of ex-PRRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte),” Enrile said in a Facebook post.
Enrile advised Duterte’s legal team to secure a copy of the ICC charges against him to fully understand the basis of his arrest.
“Philippine domestic laws have nothing to do with his current legal problem,” he added.
Enrile, a veteran lawyer and politician, was a key figure in the Martial Law regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and later played a role in his ousting during the 1986 People Power Revolution.
Now, Enrile has lived long enough to witness Duterte’s arrest by the ICC.
Panelo slams Duterte’s arrest as ‘unlawful’; ex-president decries lack of due process
Former presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo criticized Duterte’s arrest by the Philippine National Police (PNP), calling it “unlawful.”
“It is an illegal arrest because the ICC warrant comes from a spurious source—the ICC, which 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 to reporters.
Duterte, who has openly dismissed human rights concerns in the past, protested the lack of due process in his arrest.
“Show it to me now, the legal basis for my being here, as I apparently was brought here not of my own volition, but someone else’s,” Duterte said while being detained at Villamor Air Base.
