MANILA – President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. should be held accountable for the arrest and handover of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
According to Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio, the Chief Executive should be included in the probe as he had clearly approved what she described as her father’s “kidnapping.”
“The President of the Philippines has to be accountable because he allowed a foreign entity, foreign organization to interfere with our national sovereignty,” Duterte-Carpio told the media in Zamboanga City.
Duterte-Carpio added that executive department officials would not have moved to arrest her father and bring him to The Hague to face charges without the President’s approval.
The Vice President’s remarks came after Sen. Imee Marcos filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against cabinet officials involved in the former President’s arrest.
Sen. Marcos alleged that officials from the Department of Justice, Department of Interior and Local Government, and Philippine National Police sanctioned an “invalid administrative arrest” and violated the former President’s rights.
Duterte was arrested on March 11 and surrendered to the International Criminal Court, with the plane carrying him to The Hague in the Netherlands arriving the next day.
The former President is currently detained in The Hague’s facility for charges of crimes against humanity for the extrajudicial killings during his administration’s war on drugs./PN
