IN WHAT APPEARS to be a grand display of allegiance to the “appointing authority,” Justice Secretary Juanito Crispin Remulla owned up all the responsibilities behind the incarceration of former President Rodrigo Duterte and in surrendering him to the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands.
During the third hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Remulla admitted giving the clearances to serve the ICC’s warrant on Duterte — and to fly him to The Hague so he would be compelled to face crimes against humanity charges filed by the families of drug suspects who were summarily executed for the duration of the previous administration’s war against drugs.
According to Remulla, he ordered the serving of the ICC arrest warrant even as he claimed that there were legal grounds to do so. He also owned up the decision to fly the 80-year old former president to the Hague, in accordance with the law.
“I will admit that I gave the clearances to — Number One, serve the warrant of arrest as I saw it, as I deem fit. And Number Two, to fly him to The Hague, to be surrendered under Section 17 of Republic Act 9851,” Remulla was quoted as saying during the Senate committee hearing.
WHAT WENT BEFORE
On the morning of March 11, dozens of policemen swarmed and secured the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in anticipation of Duterte’s arrival from Hong Kong where the latter supposedly led a campaign sortie for PDP senatorial bets.
When the plane arrived, cops led by Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III “secured Duterte”. The former president was taken to the nearby Villamor Air Base.
Shortly before midnight, he was flown to The Netherlands and was placed in detention at The Hague Penitentiary Institution or the Scheveningen Prison on the following day.
At The Hague, Duterte was made to face the ICC via video link as the court read the charges related to the killings under his bloody drug war.
BOYING ON BULLYING
The DOJ chief took a swipe at the senators whom he claimed were “trying to make people admit” matters related to the arrest of the former president.
Remulla, particularly cited committee chairperson Senator Imee Marcos and Senator Ronald Dela Rosa for pushing Philippine Center on Transnational Crime Executive Director Anthony Alcantara and PNP chief Gen. Rommel Marbil too hard against the wall.
During the hearing, Alcantara insisted he neither wields power nor authority to force Duterte into the private jet. Marbil for his part invoked executive privilege in answering the senators’ query.
It was at this point that Marcos and Dela Rosa took turns scolding Marbil for which Remulla butted in.
“That’s why we didn’t want to attend the last hearing because this is what we were expecting. We didn’t want to be bullied into a position… you are trying to make people admit something that they will not admit.”
PROTECTING MARCOS
To some, what Remulla did is a combination of damage control and a grand display of protecting the President from being dragged and blamed for the incarceration of his most vocal critic who happens to be the father of his running mate during the 2022 presidential election.
For practitioners specializing in crisis PR, Remulla’s act of owning up the responsibility effectively stopped the “congressional fishing expedition.”
“Sec. Remulla pulled a fast kill. He could be compromised by his own admission but the bleeding stops there,” says a retired crisis PR expert who spoke on the condition that his name won’t form part of the article.
Previously, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin sent a letter to the Senate. According to Bersamin, their first appearance before the Senate is more than enough and that they’re invoking the so-called executive privilege on the Senate hearing regarding Duterte’s arrest.