The information and a copy of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa are authentic and were obtained from a third party, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said yesterday, backstopping his brother, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla.
“We talked on the phone. He told me he got the electronic copy from a third source. So it was not from the ICC,” the Department of the Interior and Local Government secretary said of his older brother, the Ombudsman, in a radio interview.
“But in form and in function, it looked official. And as far as we’re concerned, when you’re in a security apparatus, you need an actionable document. The official copy should be sent,” Jonvic Remulla said.
On 8 November, Ombudsman Remulla on his radio program with Senator JV Ejercito and other commentators said the ICC had issued a warrant of arrest for Dela Rosa.
DILG Secretary Remulla, on the other hand, refused to comment when asked how the Philippine National Police (PNP) would implement an ICC arrest warrant against Dela Rosa. He said the authorities would wait for an official copy of the order.
No IRR, no surrender
Meanwhile, Dela Rosa’s lawyer on Wednesday said there was no legal basis for surrendering Philippine citizens to an international tribunal such as the ICC without local rules governing the process.
Lawyer Israelito Torreon argued that Section 17 of Republic Act 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity, cannot be enforced in its current form without its implementing rules and procedures.
Torreon said that while the law allows the Philippines, “in appropriate cases,” to surrender or extradite a person to an international tribunal, it does not specify the process for doing so.
“No Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) have been promulgated by the Department of Justice, Department of Foreign Affairs, or any other competent authority to define or govern the specific process by which such surrender may be effected,” he said.
He explained that the lack of an IRR means that Section 17 of RA 9851 is not self-executing and, therefore, cannot serve as an independent legal authority for the surrender of individuals to international tribunals.
“By its own terms, the statute contemplates further regulation as it explicitly requires that surrender or extradition be carried out pursuant to applicable laws and treaties,” he stressed.
Torreon pointed out that the “qualifying phrase demonstrates legislative intent that the provision is conditional, not automatic,” and it operates only within a complete and lawful framework of treaty obligations and procedural safeguards.
“The rule of law demands specificity and due process in any measure that affects individual liberty,” he added.
Observe due process
Torreon emphasized that surrendering a Filipino to a foreign or international court is a “grave deprivation of liberty” that must strictly comply with constitutional due process requirements.
“Such an act cannot be founded on a vague statutory clause devoid of procedural implementation,” he said. “The Constitution, under Article III, Section 1, prohibits any deprivation of life or liberty without due process of law.”
Without clear rules, Torreon said that “any executive action to surrender a Filipino would be constitutionally infirm.”
“Indeed, it is a fundamental principle of administrative and statutory construction that laws conferring coercive powers must be implemented through clear procedural regulations,” he added.
Wrapped in secrecy
For her part, ICC Assistant to Counsel Kristina Conti said law enforcement officers should carry out the arrest of Dela Rosa under the ICC warrant in secret.
Conti said the first consideration is whether the warrant can be executed, adding that it’s about maximizing the chances of execution.
She said the ICC realizes that the application for a warrant should, by default, be secret, making a slight change to their regulation, but they still follow their usual practice.
Conti was responding to a query about why the ICC was not confirming whether or not an arrest warrant had been issued for Dela Rosa.
Although the ICC and the DoJ have yet to confirm it, Ombudsman Remulla stood by his statement, saying he had an unofficial copy of the warrant.
The DoJ said the government will serve the arrest warrant if the ICC issues it. It said the government can choose to extradite or surrender Dela Rosa to the international tribunal.
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV had said that Dela Rosa and four other former ranking police officials have been tagged as suspects in the ICC probe into the war on drugs during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Dela Rosa was the first Philippine National Police chief under Duterte and the chief implementer of the drug war which resulted in the deaths of thousands of drug suspects, mostly street pushers and users.
The camp of Dela Rosa earlier said it had yet to receive official information that the ICC had issued a warrant against him.