Imee questions Palace directives on Senate probe into Duterte's arrest

Senator Imee Marcos on Tuesday questioned the apparent conflicting directives from Malacañang regarding the participation of Cabinet officials in the second Senate inquiry into the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

"Who should be followed? Executive Secretary [Lucas] Bersamin's statement contradicts President Marcos’," Senator Imee Marcos said, referring to a letter of Bersamin informing the upper chamber that executive officials would not be attending the hearing, citing executive privilege.

She further stressed that the government should not sow confusion regarding transparency and accountability.

"They can’t have separate decisions on this. What’s the point of the president’s word if they won’t even follow it?" Senator Marcos said.

This came a day after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that he would not prevent his officials from attending the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations’ next hearing into the arrest of the former president.

Senator Marcos, who chairs the Senate panel, earlier said that the next hearing would be on Thursday, 3 April.

Amid the controversy, Senator Marcos questioned who should be calling the shots in the Palace.

“Will the President’s directive prevail or is there another force within the administration calling the shots?” she asked.

Last week, Senator Marcos highlighted the “glaring violations” of Duterte’s constitutional rights during his arrest on 11 March.

Citing the preliminary findings of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations into Duterte’s arrest, she said there were “glaring violations” of the rights of the former president.

“The Constitutional safeguards guaranteeing liberty and due process of law were not observed. No warrant was issued by a Philippine court. The arrest did not fall within the exceptions of a warrantless arrest,” she said.

Duterte is suspected of murder qualified as a crime against humanity, allegedly committed in the Philippines between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019.

Based on government data, at least 7,000 people were killed under Duterte's drug war. However, both local and international human rights groups disagreed with the figures, stressing that the actual number of victims could be as high as 30,000.