MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government is obliged to cooperate with foreign authorities should the International Criminal Court issue arrest orders for Senators Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, Malacañang said on Monday.
This, it said, would 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 Rodrigo Duterte 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 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 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 war on illegal drugs when he served as Davao City mayor and later on as president.
Castro brushed off allegations of Duterte’s political party, the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino, that the naming of Dela Rosa and Go as co-conspirators is a “derogation” to the Philippines’ sovereignty and 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 and this government if the ICC had findings regarding that because our government has no influence on the International Criminal Court,” she said.