The Ides of March of Duterte

When former president Rodrigo Duterte was flown to The Hague, Netherlands last March 11, he was already reportedly alerted about his possible arrest as soon as he returns back to Manila from his Hong Kong trip. True enough, he was served with “diffusion request” to face 43 cases of alleged “crimes against humanity” related to the reported extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during his administration’s all-out war against illegal drugs. With the cooperation of the Philippine government, Mr. Duterte was boarded on a private jet to face trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

As subsequent events played out, the Philippine government “surrendered” ex-president Duterte to the jurisdiction of the ICC through the International Criminal Police Organization, or the Interpol. But the Philippines already withdrew from the Rome Statute on March 17, 2018, shortly after the ICC commenced a preliminary examination on the alleged EJKs against then president Duterte.

The Rome Statute “is the founding treaty of the ICC, establishing the court’s jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression, with the aim of ending impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes.” It was forged in July 1998 with 125 countries, including the Philippines, as original signatories.

According to the ICC’s treaty, the withdrawal will not impact any on-going consideration of alleged crimes committed before the withdrawal entered into force. However, should any Rome Statute crimes be committed after March 17, 2019 – when the withdrawal came into effect – the Court will not have jurisdiction.

These are the raging debates among legal and constitutional experts here while 80-year-old ex-president Duterte is now cooling his heels in the medical center inside the ICC Detention Center in Scheveningen at The Hague.

But since the ICC has taken custody of ex-president Duterte, Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla conceded these 43 EJK cases are now “extra-territorial” or beyond the jurisdiction of our country’s legal system. Remulla, however, admitted the DOJ is still looking into other alleged EJK cases during the Duterte’s presidency and while he was Davao City mayor.

At our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Remulla explained the legality of the actions of the Philippine government under Section 17 of Republic Act No. 9851 or An Act Defining and Penalizing Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law as the applicable law on the “executive action” taken in the surrender of ex-president Duterte.

“I have no qualms about what we did being right or wrong. I think we were right,” Remulla asserted.

And if I may add, it is an accepted principle of sovereign states that domestic laws prevail over international laws.

The Justice secretary recalled he was about to board his plane bound for Vienna, Austria last week when they received information about the Interpol diffusion request coursed through the Philippine Transnational Crime Center (PTCC). The DOJ is included in this inter-agency body under the Office of the President. From the “timeline” of the events, Remulla was told the PTCC received the electronic copy of the Interpol request at 3 a.m. that day.

Remulla, however, strongly takes exception to “kidnap” claims by pro-Duterte camps. At Duterte’s initial hearing at ICC, the same arguments were raised by former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea, who invoked Article 59 of the Rome Statute.

“There was no kidnap. It was an executive action to surrender a person with a warrant to the ICC, through the Interpol,” the DOJ secretary pointed out.

Remulla sought to deflect criticisms that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) wavered in his previous adamant stand against the ICC taking over criminal cases when the Philippines has a fully functioning judicial or court system. Speaking for himself, Remulla also maintains nothing has changed in his testimony at a congressional hearing on Aug. 28 last year that requests for arrest from the Interpol should go through courts.

This is precisely being questioned before the Supreme Court (SC) on the petitions to bring back former president Duterte to the Philippines and out of detention at The Hague. Abiding by the sub judice rules of the court, Remulla refused to delve into the merits of these petitions. The DOJ secretary is ready though to personally step in, if need be, in the oral arguments before the High Court in place of Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, who recused the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) from the habeas corpus petitions filed by Mr. Duterte’s children. In fact, the DOJ submitted its comment last Monday asking the High Court to dismiss the petitions.

Remulla, who is turning 64 years old at the end of this month, is back to form after being slowed down by health problems last year. “I lost more than 50 pounds,” he quipped. He admitted being in and out of the hospital for six months last year.

His guesting at the 10th anniversary of the Kapihan sa Manila Bay came a day before his appearance yesterday at the public hearing of the Senate committee on foreign relations. Sen. Imee Marcos, PBBM’s elder sister and a Duterte ally, called for inquiry into the regularity of the ICC-Interpol activities in effecting “the arrest of a Filipino, a former president at that” right here in our country.

Along with his younger brother Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, the DOJ secretary, Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro and National Security Adviser Eduardo Año were among the Marcos Cabinet members invited to shed light on these matters. The Remulla brothers were known Duterte political allies before while Guevarra and Año previously served in the Duterte Cabinet.

In a prepared statement, Año vehemently denied any “grand conspiracy” against ex-president Duterte.

The “Ides of March” specifically refers to March 15 in the Roman calendar. It is a date that Shakespeare immortalized with the phrase “Beware the Ides of March.” It, however, became infamously associated with the assassination of Julius Caesar in this Shakespearean drama, where a soothsayer delivers the dire warning to the Roman emperor before he was murdered.