Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said it was the own doing of former president Rodrigo Duterte why the latter was arrested and surrendered to The Hague for his crimes against humanity case over his bloody drug war. Remulla blamed the Duterte camp for being ill-prepared in its legal preparations, as he attended the resumption of the Senate foreign relations probe on Duterte’s turnover to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Duterte camp can no longer invoke his rights under the Rome Statute because Duterte, when he was president, withdrew from the ICC founding treaty to avoid an investigation, Remulla said. Unfortunately for Duterte, the ICC proceeded with its investigation over crimes committed when the Philippines was still a state party. “Kung tayo po ay member ng ICC, kailangan po ng judicial proceedings. Eh hindi na po tayo member ng ICC. Kung miyembro po tayo ng ICC, nakatulong sana kay President Duterte na hindi po siya ililipad. Pero siya po mismo ang nag-atras ng ating membership eh,” Remulla said. “Yung gamot sana, ‘yun ang naging problema,” he added. Section 59 of the founding treaty states that an arrested person has to go through a domestic court before being surrendered to the foreign tribunal. “A person arrested shall be brought promptly before the competent judicial authority in the custodial State which shall determine, in accordance with the law of that State, that the warrant applies to that person; the person has been arrested in accordance with the proper process; and the person’s rights have been respected,” the Rome Statute reads. Remulla said the Philippine government opted to surrender Duterte – instead of bringing him before a domestic court or extraditing him – because the Philippines was no longer a state party to the Rome Statute out of Duterte’s own doing. The Philippine government’s actions of surrendering him has legal basis under Republic Act 9851 or the “Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity,” according to Remulla. Related Posts Read Full Story