By Billy Begas Former Senate President Franklin Drilon expressed confidence that the Supreme Court (SC) will uphold the actions taken by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in connection with the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte. Towards the end of Bilyonaryo News Channel’s On Point, host Pinky Webb underscored the importance of the decision to be made by the SC about the petitions filed questioning Duterte’s arrest, to which Drilon replied, “Wanna bet?” “Wanna bet? The Supreme Court will sustain the President,” Drilon added. Drilon, Webb, and another guest, former Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, then shared a laugh. Earlier in the program, Drilon and Lacierda expressed their belief that Duterte’s arrest and his subsequent turnover to the International Criminal Court (ICC) are legal. “You’re gonna question that on the basis of the Philippine jurisdiction. Here is the situation: even if you invoke the Constitution in our case, vis-a-vis an international treaty in international law, the Constitution is considered municipal law and what will govern is the international treaty that we entered into. So, when you are talking about the legality of the arrest, they will be invoking the laws that would be applicable,” Lacierda said. “I’m not an international criminal court practitioner, so I’m not familiar with those laws, but definitely there must be some color of legal authority there because otherwise they would have been easily stopped by the Supreme Court (SC) if at all,” he added. At the time of the arrest, the camp of Duterte had filed a petition before the SC seeking to stop the arrest of the former president. Drilon, meanwhile, pointed out that the law enforcers cannot surrender Duterte to any local court since the arrest order was issued by the ICC. “The theory of the administration in fulfillment of our international obligation is that we arrested him and turned him over to the ICC. And by the way, all this question of jurisdiction to me is laying the basis for argument before the ICC,” Drilon added. Duterte is facing crimes against humanity charges before the ICC in connection with his war on drugs campaign that resulted in the death of thousands. Related Posts Read Full Story
