The Return Duterte Movement announced on Wednesday that more groups will join the “Bring Duterte Home Unity Motorcade” on 28 March. The caravan will travel from various points across Manila and Quezon City in celebration of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s 80th birthday, who is currently detained in a prison facility in The Hague, Netherlands, awaiting trial for alleged crimes against humanity.
Benito Ranque, co-convenor of the movement, said that aside from the Unity Caravans from Lingayen in Pangasinan and Lucena City, groups in Tacloban, Ormoc, Davao City, Butuan, Surigao, South Cotabato, Cebu City, Bohol, and other parts of the country will also hold their own motorcades in their respective localities.
Earlier, Claudine Roco, convenor of the Luzon-based “Bring Duterte Home” motorcade, told the DAILY TRIBUNE via telephone from Lucena City that the motorcades will converge in Lingayen and Lucena at 6 a.m. on 28 March before heading to Manila. Riders along service roads are expected to join as the caravan passes through.
“It will be a 12-hour trip and upon reaching Manila and Quezon City, candlelight ceremonies will be held at Liwasang Bonifacio and the People Power Monument,” she said.
She added that riders will wear green, bring flags and banners, and carry a spirit of unity and patriotism to make the event memorable and meaningful.
Major rider groups will lead the motorcade, while volunteers are expected to line provincial service roads to show support for the former president, who is spending his 80th birthday behind bars in a foreign land.
Meanwhile, Benito Ranque on Wednesday denied that the arrest of former President Duterte was legal, contradicting statements made by Press Officer Claire Castro, who earlier said the arrest was in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“As Vice President Sara Duterte announced in the Netherlands, the arrest was illegal—it was a simple case of kidnapping,” Ranque told the DAILY TRIBUNE.
He said he was responding to Castro’s assertion that the arrest was lawful.
Ranque also revealed that Duterte had been urged to stay in Hong Kong under China’s protection, but declined the offer and chose to return to the Philippines to face the charges.
“‘I know what I am doing. Let them arrest me,’” Duterte was quoted as saying by one of his advisers.
Ranque said the former president, being a lawyer, knew his rights and that judicial procedures must be followed before any arrest. He argued that the ICC failed to bring Duterte before a judicial authority prior to his arrest.
“But he was not brought to judicial authorities, but was forced to board a plane, he even denied an audience to his daughter Vice President Sara who is also his legal council," Ranque said.
Before a rally of overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong, Duterte had said he was prepared to face arrest by the ICC, insisting that his anti-drug campaign was for the benefit of the Filipino people.