TURNING POINT: Friends Needed, Anyone there?

NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 20 March) — The noise over the arrest and detention of former President Rodrigo Duterte is just that, noise. No matter how the volume increases and reverberates throughout the land it makes no difference; it cannot undo or change things.

The argument of Duterte defenders that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has lost jurisdiction over the beleaguered former head of state upon withdrawal of the Philippines as state party of the Rome Statute is debunked by an early ruling of the Supreme Court that the ICC has jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed during the period before the withdrawal.

Then President Duterte withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2018 upon learning that some of his critics filed cases against him with the ICC on 2017. Per the policy of the Rome Statute, a State Party’s withdrawal will take effect a year after its filing; and for this matter, on 2019. The withdrawal, needless to say, was self-serving but served him not.

The habeas corpus petition, on the other hand, of the Duterte children with Supreme Court has no moment. Duterte is detained in The Hague. Our Supreme Court has no authority to order and compel the International tribunal to bring Duterte home.

Duterte will remain in the clutches of the ICC while in trial or until his acquittal. An ICC trial may take, accordingly, from 7-9 years to finish. He would be 87 or 89 years old by then. If convicted he would stay for at least 10 more years in jail.

No one will like tatay Digong to rot in jail.

The old man should be rescued, even temporarily by bail. Devoted daughter Inday Sara thus has formed a defense team composed of prominent lawyers with ICC experience, whose engagement which is, accordingly, on an hourly basis may cost millions of US$.

For all his years in power as chief executive of the land, doesn’t FPRRD have Filipino lawyer friends with ICC experience to offer a helping hand?

Can’t VP Sara Duterte find any?

The wheel of fortune has turned against the Dutertes. Both father and daughter will be tried this year in separate courts. The Vice President will be tried by the Senate Impeachment Court in July, while the former President by the International Criminal Court in September.

How unfortunate.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental.)