VP Sara accuses ICC of 'kidnapping' father anew
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s claim that the International Criminal Court “kidnapped” her father now appears to be a staple of her speeches to their family's supporters during rallies, with the vice president recently repeating the line at an event with Filipinos in Nagoya, Japan, on Sunday, September 21.
Duterte’s speech during the rally in Nagoya briefly touched on her father’s petition for interim release before returning to a familiar refrain — that the ICC had abused its authority in taking custody of the former president.
The remark echoed Duterte’s earlier statements at The Hague in July and in media interviews on the night of her father’s arrest in March.
“Ang ginawa nila, kinidnap nila si dating Pangulong Duterte. Pang-aabuso,” Duterte said.
(What they did was they kidnapped President Duterte. This is abuse).
The vice president again accused the ICC of forcibly removing her father from the Philippines rather than allowing him to face trial in a local court.
"When you have a warrant of arrest, you are brought before a judge. What they did to former President Rodrigo Duterte was, with a warrant of arrest, they forcibly took him from our country and brought him to The Hague," Duterte said in Filipino.
"He was not brought to a court here in the Philippines.. That is the right of the accused in our country, there in the Philippines," the vice president said.
Words as evidence. Duterte's earlier remarks accusing the ICC of illegally taking custody of her father have been used against her in court.
In particular, the ICC prosecution has cited Duterte's remarks — specifically, her claim of kidnapping and her quip of staging a "jailbreak" for her father — as reasons to oppose former President Rodrigo Duterte's petition for interim release.
In a filing made public on September 12, ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang argued before the court's pre-trial chamber that the vice president's comments showed the Duterte family’s refusal to recognize the court’s legitimacy.
"Mr. Duterte's family members have continued to reject the legitimacy of his legal proceedings before the Court," the prosecutor had written in the filing, where they pointed to a "pattern of the Duterte family refusing to accept the legitimacy of the legal proceedings."
The prosecutor warned that Rodrigo Duterte's release would give him "greater access to his associates and family who are actively attempting to interfere with the proceedings against him."
Defending interim release
At the Nagoya rally, Duterte defended her father's application for interim release, arguing the ICC cannot deny it based on flight risk since the 80-year-old former president voluntarily returned to the Philippines from Hong Kong in March.
The vice president said her father has repeatedly expressed wanting to die in the Philippines, specifically in Davao City.
Duterte also bared that their camp initially struggled to find a government willing to host the former president. This process, she said, took time, because she had no one she trusted in the Philippines to talk to about the sensitive matter.
Instead, Duterte said she leveraged the contacts she built during her tenure as Department of Education secretary and as vice president.
"I talked to the people I met in other countries because of my work. I met [these people] during my trips around Southeast Asia because of the Department of Education and my work at the Office of the Vice President," Duterte said in Filipino.
After these discussions, she said they successfully identified a willing host nation, though she declined to name the country publicly.
Under ICC rules, defendants granted interim release must reside in a specific country that will strictly agree to monitor them and ensure their appearance at trial proceedings.
The ICC's confirmation of charges hearing against Duterte was initially scheduled for September 23. However, on September 8, the hearing was postponed indefinitely after the defense team requested an adjournment, arguing that the elder Duterte was unfit to stand trial.
Rulings for both the interim release request and the request to indefinitely adjourn proceedings have yet to be issued.
The elder Duterte was arrested and taken to The Hague in March over charges of crimes against humanity related to the drug war killings when he was president, and earlier, Davao City mayor.
Duterte's anti-illegal drugs campaign as president has been the subject of investigation by the ICC since 2018. Official police figures report over 6,000 fatalities linked to the crackdown, yet human rights organizations believe that the true toll could reach as high as 30,000, including innocent civilians.
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