Former President Rodrigo Duterte testifies at a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on extrajudicial killings and alleged human rights violations in his administration’s war on drugs on October 28, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File
MANILA — Former President Rodrigo Duterte should not blame the Philippine government for his current legal woes, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile said Tuesday.
In a Facebook post, Enrile noted that the former Philippine leader’s legal problem was not caused by Philippine domestic laws, “but by laws enforceable by the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
“It is not correct to blame the Philippine government for the current legal problem of ex-PRRD,” Enrile said.
“His lawyers should endeavor to secure a copy of the ICC charges against him so that they will know why he was ordered to be arrested by the ICC. Philippine domestic laws have nothing to do with his current legal problem,” he said.
Rodrigo Duterte arrested on ICC warrant for alleged crimes against humanity
Duterte faces a charge of "the crime against humanity of murder", according to the ICC, for a crackdown that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.
The 79-year-old has questioned the legality of his arrest, saying: “What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?”
“Explain to me now the legal basis for my being here as apparently I was brought here not of my own volition. It’s somebody else’s,” the former President said in a video uploaded by his daughter Veronica Duterte on social media.
“You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty… Have you read the case at the time you made the arrest so that you should be guided on what you should know?” he said.
Duterte questions ICC warrant of arrest
While no location was given for the video, a photo released by his political party said he was being held at the Villamor Air Base next to Manila airport.
Duterte's former chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, called the arrest "unlawful".
"The (Philippine National Police) didn't allow one of his lawyers to meet him at the airport and to question the legal basis for PRRD's arrest," he said.
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— With a report from Agence France-Presse