MANILA – Department of Justice (DOH) secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla took responsibility for the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte based on an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity.
Remulla said the clearance given by his office to serve the ICC warrant against Duterte and to send him to The Hague in the Netherlands “was probably the most important part” of the operation.
“In some ways, because I gave them the legal basis for all the actions that happened… if I have to be the one, if I’m the one that is being referred to,” Remulla said during a Senate inquiry on Thursday afternoon.
“I will admit it that I gave the clearances to — number one, serve the warrant of arrest as I saw it, as I deemed fit. And number two, to fly him to The Hague, to be surrendered under Section 17 of Republic Act 9851,” he added.
Remulla made the remark after senators were asking Philippine Center on Transnational Crime executive director Anthony Alcantara and Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Rommel Marbil to reveal who ordered the boarding of Duterte to the private jet that flew him to The Hague.
Alcantara said that he was not the “authority” that ordered to board Duterte to the private jet, while Marbil invoked executive privilege in answering the senators’ query.
Duterte was flown to The Hague after his arrest and was placed in detention at The Hague penitentiary institution or the Scheveningen Prison on March 13.
Duterte faced the ICC via video link the following day, where the court read to him the charges against him related to the killings under his administration’s war on drugs./PN
