(UPDATE) THE government is obliged to cooperate should the International Criminal Court (ICC) issue arrest orders for Senators Ronald dela Rosa and Bong Go, just like it did with former president Rodrigo Duterte, Malacañang said on Monday.
However, this would only be possible if the serving of warrants would be coursed through the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, just like the case of former president who was turned over to the international tribunal in March last year.
“It has been done before and we followed the law that exists in our country. Our government coordinated with Interpol, which is why former president Duterte was sent to The Hague,” Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro said in Filipino in a press briefing.
Dela Rosa and Go, along with former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II; former Philippine National Police (PNP) generals Oscar Albayalde, Camilo Cascolan, and Vicente Danao; former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Isidro Lapeña; and former National Bureau of Investigation director Dante Gierran, were named by the ICC as co-perpetrators of Duterte in his bloody war on illegal drugs when he served as Davao City mayor and later on as president.
Together, they wielded “de facto authority” as well as “shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ criminals in the Philippines, including those perceived or alleged to be associated with drug use, sale or production, through violent crimes including murder,” according to the ICC.
Of the eight names, only dela Rosa’s whereabouts are unknown. He has ceased attending sessions in the Senate since November after talks surfaced that the ICC has ordered his apprehension.
Cascolan, the author of the PNP’s “Oplan Double Barrel” — the restructured “Oplan Tokhang” of the Duterte administration, meanwhile, is deceased. He passed away from “lingering illness” in 2023.
Castro brushed off allegations from Duterte’s political party, the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino (PDP), that the naming of dela Rosa and Go as co-conspirators is a “derogation” of the Philippines’ sovereignty. Nor, Castro added, is it an attempt of the present leadership to divert the public’s attention from the corruption scandal.
“This is not a diversion. Because this case has been filed in the ICC for a long time. President Marcos Jr. was not even president yet when it was filed. So, it should not be blamed on our president... because our government has no influence on the International Criminal Court,” she said.
Castro also said there is no need, at least at the moment, to keep a close watch on the the additional persons named as co-perpetrators by the ICC.
“Once arrest warrants have been issued, they must be implemented. Then, they are to be watched. At the moment there is no reason to watch them because the government has not yet received any arrest warrants,” Castro said in Filipino.
She urged all accused to man up and face the accusations against them if they are confident that they did not do anything wrong.
“If you are in hiding, what does that mean? Are you guilty, are you hiding so you can escape or evade the liability of what you have done? So, there is no need to hide if they know that they are innocent. Face it,” she said.
The ICC has scheduled the confirmation of charges hearing in Duterte’s case on Feb. 23 to determine if there is enough evidence to go to trial.
Go said his public service would remain “uninterrupted” despite the allegation that he was an alleged co-perpetrator in the alleged bloody war on drugs during the Duterte administration.
The senator also said that his duty as a senator would be guided by compassion and sincerity, particularly in advancing programs and policies aimed at assisting poor and vulnerable Filipinos.
He denied allegations contained in a redacted version of the document containing the charges issued by the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on Feb. 13, where his name was identified as an alleged co-perpetrator of former president Duterte, who was facing crime against humanity before the ICC.
“I will not allow these baseless accusations to distract me from my responsibilities as a duly elected senator of the republic,” Go said in a statement on Sunday, suggesting he would not go into hiding like dela Rosa did.