Remulla, top officials hit with new raps over Duterte arrest

Justice Secretary Boying Remulla, along with Cabinet and police officials, has been slapped anew with criminal complaints, including kidnapping, just days after the Ombudsman dismissed similar charges related to the alleged illegal arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte in March.

The complaint was filed by the lawyers of Davao City Acting Mayor Sebastian Duterte on Monday at the Office of the Ombudsman for Mindanao, accusing them of eight counts each of kidnapping and arbitrary detention, violating the Anti-Torture Act (RA 9745), qualified direct assault, expulsion, two counts of violating certain rights of persons arrested (RA 7438), usurpation, and graft (RA 3019).

The respondents also include Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty, former Philippine National Police chiefs General Nicolas Torre III and Rommel Marbil, Markus Lacanilao, Anthony Alcantara, Richard Anthony Fadullon, and Brigadier General Jean Fajardo.

Aside from criminal complaints, Mayor Duterte also charged them with administrative offenses, namely, serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty, grave misconduct, disloyalty, oppression (grave abuse of authority), and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.

The complaint was filed after the Ombudsman, over the weekend, dismissed a similar case filed by Senator Imee Marcos in May.

Mayor Duterte insisted that the arrest of his father was illegal and considered kidnapping in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“He was arrest[ed] without grounds and his arrest was not made with the proper procedure established by the law and the rules,” the 160-page complaint read.

Moreover, Mayor Duterte contended that the warrant was invalid as it was illegally issued through Interpol by the ICC, which no longer has jurisdiction over the Philippines as early as March 2019.

To recall, the Philippines, under Duterte’s watch, departed from the Rome Statute — the ICC’s founding treaty — after the tribunal launched a preliminary investigation into the former leader’s brutal drug war, which saw over 6,000 deaths based on government data.

“Enforcing and cooperating with the ICC post-withdrawal will violate the very independence of our country and its sovereign existence…There is nothing to cooperate, but the respondents still chose to, despite our vehement oppositions,” Mayor Duterte said in the complaint.

The ICC, however, asserted that it still has jurisdiction over the killings committed before the country’s withdrawal, emphasizing that the preliminary probe had already commenced even before the country departed the treaty.

Mayor Duterte argued that his father should have been brought to the nearest local court to determine the propriety of his arrest before he was turned over to a foreign body.

This recent complaint poses a threat to Justice Secretary Remulla’s bid to be the country’s next Ombudsman as applicants should have a clear record and no pending cases to be nominated.

Under the rules of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), which vets and selects nominees for justices and ombudsmen, applicants with pending criminal and administrative complaints shall be disqualified from the race.

The body also disqualifies applicants without clearance from the Ombudsman if they have pending cases.

The dismissal of Senator Marcos’ complaint could have paved the way for the production of the clearance for Justice Secretary Remulla, but this latest complaint by Mayor Duterte made it unattainable.