Vice President Sara Duterte confirmed on Saturday she had met with her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) detention center in Scheveningen in The Hague, the Netherlands.
“President Duterte is in the hospital wing of the detention center. He is in good spirits and well taken care of,” she said in a press conference early Saturday morning (Philippine time).
ICC, explaining that his war on drugs was for the benefit of Filipinos.
Ranque also revealed that Duterte was aware the Office of the President has chartered a jet to transport him to the Netherlands to face charges of crimes against humanity at the ICC.
In a television interview, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla admitted his role in the operation to arrest Duterte and transport him directly to The Hague.
“The plane was chartered by the Office of the President. We brought him straight to the Netherlands at 11:03 p.m. (Tuesday) and we surrendered him to the ICC,” Ranque quoted Remulla as saying.
Remulla named President Marcos, Speaker Martin Romualdez, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, Rep. Zaldy Co, and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as the core group for the operation.
Ranque theorized that someone within the operation leaked the information to Duterte, warning him in advance to help him evade the trap set for him.
“But Tatay Digong had already made up his mind, and the rest is history,” Ranque said.
Meanwhile, daily prayer rallies will be held in various parts of the country to seek divine intervention for the return of Duterte, who is detained at the ICC detention center in The Hague, organizers announced on Saturday.
The kickoff rally was to be held at Liwasang Bonifacio on Saturday night, Ranque said, and will spread to other parts of the country as Duterte remains imprisoned.
Manny Lumanao, PDP-Laban president for the Caraga region, said nightly prayer rallies are held in the cities of Butuan, Tandag, Surigao, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao.
“At dusk, people begin coming out and gathering in public places to join spontaneous peace rallies,” Lumanao said.
In Cagayan de Oro City, Kagayanons joined the nationwide prayer and candlelight rally on Saturday afternoon, calling for Duterte’s return.
Cagayan de Oro Councilor Girlie Balaba, regional head of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) and an ally of the Duterte family, addressed rallyists at the amphitheater in Divisoria. She called the national government “inutile” for allowing Duterte to be flown out of the country by foreigners.
Balaba contrasted this with Duterte’s efforts to send aircraft to bring overseas Filipinos in distress back to the Philippines during his presidency.
She lambasted the justice department, saying, “They did nothing to protect a Filipino from being kidnapped in his homeland by foreigners from the ICC, even when the country is no longer a member of it.”
Before the prayer rally, a motorcade was held from Barangay Bugo, while other participants arrived following a “walk-for-peace” from Rodelsa Circle.
According to the Vice President, the former leader expressed his longing for Filipino food. “But very recently, the meals now include rice, so that is a good development,” she said.
The visit lasted only an hour during which they discussed his legal team, family matters and national issues.
“He said, ‘I don’t do anything here except sleep and watch TV,’” she quoted him.
“We did not discuss his initial appearance. We only discussed the lawyers, the legal team, and what we are going to do in the next four days,” the VP said.
She said she was unaware that her father would be appearing via livestream during the first tribunal hearing.
“I think that was the decision of the doctor. Inside the facility, all decisions are made by the doctor,” she explained.
The next ICC hearing is scheduled in six months, on 23 September.
She said her father repeatedly urged her to return to the Philippines. “But I will not leave until another relative arrives to make sure there is a next of kin who will replace me here.”
“When we talked, he repeatedly said, ‘Do not leave the country. Do not leave the Philippines.’ And so I told him I understood that. I do not want to be here as well, but unfortunately, I am the only one who has a Schengen visa and I am the only one who is a lawyer,” she said.
“So I told him that once we meet with the legal team, I will immediately return. I will be here until the legal team is doing their work and a relative is available to assist him,” she added.
The Vice President maintained that her father was forcibly taken to another country and unlawfully detained.
“It was really a kidnapping. You see comments all around the world from experts. They forcibly took my father to another country and illegally arrested him. So that’s clearly a kidnapping,” she asserted.
When asked if they would apply for an interim release due to his age and health condition, she refrained from commenting.
“That is something that I cannot comment on because it’s a legal strategy,” she said.
As the pre-trial hearing commenced, protests erupted outside the ICC in The Hague, with demonstrators split between Duterte supporters and those seeking justice for the victims of his war on drugs.
On Friday evening (Manila time), Duterte appeared via videolink for the initial hearing at the ICC. Wearing a blue suit and tie, he confirmed his name and date of birth but spoke little beyond that.
His lawyer, Salvador Medialdea, told the court Duterte was “abducted from his country.”
“He was summarily transported to The Hague. To lawyers, it’s an extrajudicial rendition. For less legal minds, it’s a pure and simple kidnapping,” Medialdea said.
Medialdea also said that Duterte has a “debilitating medical issue” that would limit his ability to participate in the hearing. However, Presiding Judge Iulia Motoc said the court doctor had determined Duterte was “fully mentally aware and fit.”
Duterte is accused of crimes against humanity, particularly murder, for his years-long war on drugs, which human rights groups estimated led to more than 30,000 deaths.
In the ICC prosecutor’s application for Duterte’s arrest, he described the former president’s actions as “part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in the Philippines.”
The prosecutor said that Duterte himself issued public pronouncements encouraging the killings, including a speech where he stated, “The fish in Manila Bay will become fat because that’s where I will throw you.”
While victims’ families hailed Duterte’s arrest as a step toward justice, his supporters maintained that he was unjustly taken.
Duterte’s supporters gathered outside the ICC, demanding his release and chanting, “Bring him home!”