MANILA, Philippines, March 21 ------ Vice President Sara Duterte has acknowledged the possibility that her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, may no longer be able to return to the country as she accused the Marcos administration of being determined to keep him in The Hague.
Asked about how she felt regarding Sen. Ronald dela Rosa’s disappointment over National Security Adviser Eduardo Año’s reported role in Duterte’s arrest, she said: “Sa totoo lang wala talaga akong nararamdaman. Hindi ako galit, hindi ako disappointed. Nothing at all. Kasi pointless naman na… magharbor ako ng feelings about what happened. Hindi na siya maibabalik. Hindi na mababalik si Pangulong Duterte sa Pilipinas. So what we should do as a country is move on from what happened. What will we do as our ways forward as a country and as a people from what happened?” Duterte said in Filipino during a press conference yesterday streamed on the OVP’s Facebook account.
Duterte said there was no point in harboring anger against the Marcos administration as they refuse to listen to reason. “Magalit man tayo walang pupuntahan yung galit natin dahil hindi naman sila yan papanagutin ng pamahalaan. Nakikita nyo yung mga sagot nila wala na sa ayos, wala na sa rason, wala na sa common sense, wala na sa batas. Pero walang magagawa laban sa kanila. So we should move forward from what happened, the country should decide, the people should decide saan ba tayo papunta,” she said. “We have now lost a former president. I pray that we do not lose the country next,” she said.
Meanwhile, Duterte also addressed rumors of a traitor within the group of people who were strategizing with her father in Hong Kong a day before he came home to the Philippines and was subsequently arrested. “I’m sure that out of the many people in that room, someone leaked whatever was discussed inside. To whom they told it, I do not know,” she said.
The Vice President, however, stressed that whoever was saying there was a traitor among them was the person the “insider” was speaking to. “Who said there was a traitor? Whoever said it must be the one who was talking to the one inside the room in Hong Kong,” she said. “I will just clarify that there was division of duties in that meeting. I was moderating that meeting. I asked PRRD for his decision and what he wants to do. He says he wants to go home to the Philippines, he doesn’t want to live abroad, he will not hide,” she added.
However, what the former president did not expect was that he would be taken directly to The Hague instead of a local court. In a virtual appearance before the Senate on Thursday, the Vice President said her father’s arrest was a case of “extraordinary rendition” and insisted that the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) was not valid because not reviewed by a local court.
Extraordinary rendition is the secret transfer of suspects to other countries, often to face detention or interrogation. She maintained that the Marcos administration unlawfully arrested her father, saying it was “patently illegal.” “This was patently an illegal arrest. This constitutes extraordinary rendition. A Filipino citizen, a former president, was taken into custody without a valid warrant issued by a Philippine court, without due process, and without any legal basis under our laws,” she added.
Source: philstar.com
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