Former Bayan Muna congressman and its current Chairman Neri Colmenares today questioned the Senate findings of Sen. Imee Marcos that the rights of former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte were violated during his arrest since the Philippines has no obligation to surrender Duterte to the ICC.
“The findings of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations headed by Sen. Imee Marcos that former Pres. Duterte’s rights were violated during his arrest and that the Philippines has no obligation to surrender him to the ICC is factually and legally baseless and wrong,” declared former Bayan Muna Congressman Neri Colmenares who is also counsel to the victims who filed the ICC complaint in 2018.
“Firstly, the Philippines certainly continues to have obligations to cooperate since we agreed that the ICC has the power to issue a warrant and serve it in the Philippines under Article 127 and Part 9 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, when we signed the treaty in 2011. Article 127 (2) states that the withdrawal of a state party “shall not affect any cooperation with the Court in connection with criminal investigations and proceedings in relation to which the withdrawing State had a duty to cooperate and which were commenced prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective”. Any state including the Philippines bound itself to this obligation to cooperate, even if we have withdrawn, when we agreed to the Rome Statute. Article 89 grants the ICC the power to “request for the arrest and surrender of a person, xxx, to any State on the territory of which that person may be found and shall request the cooperation of that State in the arrest and surrender of such a person,” he explained
“Even presuming that the Philippines has no obligation to surrender Pres. Duterte, it is still the discretion of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos whether or not to cooperate with the ICC. Clearly, Pres. Marcos has exercised this discretion and decided to cooperate with the ICC despite his public statements that they merely cooperated with the Interpol and not the ICC. Pres. Marcos must abandon this wishy-washy stand and bravely admit that he cooperated with the ICC, as his current messaging only confuses the public and adds ammunition to the Duterte propaganda that the ICC has no jurisdiction convincing more people of the illegality of the arrest”, Colmenares warned Pres. Marcos.
“Secondly, the Philippine government has the duty and power to surrender Pres. Duterte under Section 17 of RA 9851 which states that “In the interest of justice, the relevant Philippine authorities may dispense with the investigation or prosecution of a crime punishable under this Act if another court or international tribunal is already conducting the investigation or undertaking the prosecution of such crime. Instead, the authorities may surrender or extradite suspected or accused persons in the Philippines to the appropriate international court, xxx” Pres. Duterte is suspected of committing crimes against humanity and may therefore be surrendered by the Philippines to the ICC “in the interest of justice,” explained Colmenares.
“The assertion of Sen. Marcos that there was no warrant of arrest or that Duterte was not allowed counsel is untrue. A warrant of arrest has been validly issued by the ICC and Pres. Duterte has Atty. Salvador Medialdea when arrested. His retaining of Medialdea as counsel in the first ICC hearing only proves that he was actually his counsel of choice,” he added
“It is clear that Pres. Marcos personally decided to cooperate with the ICC, and Sen. Marcos’ assertion that the Philippines has no obligation to cooperate with the ICC is now irrelevant because even if this were true, any state, whether a member or not, can still cooperate with the ICC in its discretion—even without a red notice from Interpol. Citing Article 92 and the case of Hong Kong vs. Olalia on the implementation of the extradition treaty is irrelevant as the surrender of Pres. Duterte was not an implementation of an extradition treaty, but in the implementation of the Rome treaty and RA 9851. Bayan Muna calls on Pres. Marcos to admit that the Philippines has obligations under the ICC, and he merely fulfilled this obligation “in the interest of justice,” Colmenares concluded.#
