It has been a month since former President Rodrigo Duterte was brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands for the charge of crimes against humanity of murder. The wheels of justice for the more than 30,000 who have died under his bloody drug war have been grinding since his March 11 arrest.
He is currently detained at the Scheveningen detention facility, about 1.5 kilometers from the ICC headquarters in The Hague. He can be visited by his lawyers and members of his family only. The hearing on confirmation of charges is provisionally scheduled on Sept. 23.
But Sen. Imee Marcos , chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Duterte’s close associates – Sens. Ronald De la Rosa, Christopher “Bong” Go, Robin Padilla, and Alan Peter Cayetano, are still stuck with the March 11 arrest of the former president.
Imee Marcos, sister of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., held a third hearing on the matter April 10.
Unable to get the answers she wanted from resource persons, who included Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla, and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre II, she ordered in contempt and detained Ambassador Markus Lacanilao, special envoy Philippine Center on Transnational Crimes, without the approval of Senate President Francis Joseph “Chiz” Escudero.
Escudero ordered the release of Lacanilao and urged Sen. Marcos, who is running for reelection “to refrain from using the Senate as a platform for her own personal political objectives and to instead use her name, title, and influence as a bridge toward unity, not a wedge for division.”
Photos and video by Bullit Marquez for VERA Files.
