The former Philippines president’s extradition contravened both domestic law and the ICC’s own rules, Salvador Panelo has said
The detention and extradition of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte flouted the country’s laws, his former chief presidential legal counsel and spokesperson, Salvador Panelo has told RT.
Duterte was arrested at Manila’s international airport, detained and flown to The Hague, to be placed in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday. The former president is accused of crimes against humanity committed during his war on drugs over 2016-2022.
The former president was “arrested without a warrant,” taken to Villamor Air Base in the Philippines and “detained there illegally,” Panelo said in an interview with RT on Friday.
“From our point of view, that was an illegal arrest, that was an illegal detention, and that was kidnapping,” the former presidential legal aide stressed.
The arrest warrant came from a “spurious” source that “as far as this country is concerned…has no jurisdiction,” Panelo added.
The Philippines has not been a member of the ICC since 2019, following then-President Duterte’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the institution’s founding treaty.
READ MORE: ICC picks ‘easiest targets’ – expert
Under Filipino law, any foreign arrest warrant has to pass through a local court, Panelo emphasized.
Similarly, from the perspective of the Rome Statute, when the ICC seeks a warrant of arrest, it “has to be referred to the state member and it has to pass through a judicial authority, and that was not done,” he said.
Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, could be targeted by a similar warrant in the future to stop her from running in the 2028 presidential election, Panelo believes.
Last month, an escalating feud between Sara Duterte and incumbent President Bongbong Marcos led to impeachment proceedings against the former.
Rodrigo Duterte’s actions against illegal drug trafficking “stopped criminality, reduced it to the barest minimum,” leaving him with “astronomical” good ratings with the people of the Philippines, Panelo said.
The former president’s guilt or innocence should be settled in the Filipino courts, he stressed.
