Marcos won’t bar execs from attending Imee probe

The President’s sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, has set a second public hearing for this Thursday.

“No, as we said the other day, the President will not stop Cabinet members or secretaries if they are summoned. And they should answer any questions that are asked of them, provided that it does not violate executive privilege, that’s all,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said at a press briefing when asked whether the same set of Cabinet officials would attend the hearing or if the President has made “special instructions” regarding the Senate probe.

The Senate committee on foreign affairs, chaired by Senator Marcos, has yet to name the personalities to be invited to the second hearing.

She earlier said her committee noted the “lack of due process” in the government’s turnover of Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague where he is now awaiting trial for crimes against humanity.

The senator said her committee noted “glaring violations” of the rights of Duterte as well as the Philippines’ having “no legal obligation” to arrest and turn him over to the ICC.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin earlier wrote to Senate President Francis Escudero to remind him that Cabinet members could invoke executive privilege during a public inquiry.

Castro earlier said it is the right of the President and the administration to invoke executive privilege if asked about matters deemed confidential in nature.

Among those who attended the first hearing on March 20 were Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, Philippine Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Arthur Cordura and Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rommel Marbil.

Duterte lawyer to raise jurisdiction issue

Meanwhile, Duterte’s lead lawyer Nicholas Kaufman said Sunday there was a “compelling” argument to throw out the ICC case against his client before it even comes to trial.

In an interview with AFP, Kaufman said he hoped to stop the case before the ICC confirms the charges against Duterte by arguing the court cannot exercise its jurisdiction.

He said the Philippines’ withdrawal from the court had become effective well before an investigation was authorized. The former president is set to face the tribunal on Sept. 23 for the confirmation of charges against him.

“Coming back to the jurisdictional point, obviously you don’t need to be the dean of a law faculty to realize that that’s going to be a huge issue at pre-trial,” Kaufman said.

“I think that the jurisdictional argument is compelling as defense counsel. I believe that it should succeed and I would be hugely disappointed if it doesn’t succeed,” he added.

“We hope to persuade the judges pre-trial that it (the court) cannot exercise its jurisdiction over the case. There won’t be a confirmation-of-charges hearing if the judges rule in our favor.”

The issue of jurisdiction is key in this case as the Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019.

However, when the court issued its arrest warrant for Duterte, it noted that the alleged crimes took place while the country was still an ICC member.

“As the alleged conduct has taken place between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019 on the territory of the Philippines, it falls within the Court’s jurisdiction,” the ICC said.

The ICC chief prosecutor’s application for his arrest said Duterte’s alleged crimes were “part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population” in the Philippines.

The families of victims of his war on drugs see the ICC case as a long-awaited chance for justice.

‘Kidnapping’

Another likely critical issue for the defense will be Duterte’s arrest on March 11 and his rapid handover to the ICC in The Hague, according to Kaufman.

“I view it as a kidnapping, nothing more or less. It’s an extrajudicial rendition. He was given no due process, just slung over to The Hague,” he said. “This was in complete contravention of Philippines law.”

The former president’s sudden detention came amid a spectacular deterioration in relations between the Marcos and Duterte families. The Palace said it won’t cooperate with the ICC if it allows Duterte’s interim release.

Vice President Sara Duterte has since been impeached on charges that include an alleged assassination plot against the President.

The former president “should have been brought before a judge before he was thrown onto a plane and dumped in The Hague. That didn’t happen. As I’ve said already, this is a political hit job,” said Kaufman.

“The politics in that country basically ended up in a situation where they needed to get him out of the picture. The incumbent government did not want him in the picture anymore.”

Kaufman said he was visiting his client virtually every day in the ICC detention center, a couple of kilometers from the beach in the suburb of Scheveningen.

Duterte was “adjusting to the reality of prison life. That’s not easy for anyone,” according to his lawyer.

However, the former president was in “good spirits,” said Kaufman, whose previous clients at ICC include former Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba and Aisha Kadhafi, daughter of the deceased Libyan dictator.

Kaufman said he was concerned that the ICC, currently under fire from all sides and even US sanctions, would be reluctant to give up such a high-profile case.

“My only fear is that this court is starved of cases at the present moment and might be loath to let a case like that go, to slip through its hands.”  — Helen Flores, Janvic Mateo