NBI chief says more ICC arrest warrants coming

MANILA, Philippines — Former president Rodrigo Duterte may soon have company in The Hague, as the International Criminal Court (ICC) is set to issue more warrants against his co-perpetrators in the crimes against humanity charges, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said.

“We have information that there are several who will be issued warrants by the ICC,” NBI director Melvin Matibag revealed yesterday at a news forum in Quezon City.

The NBI chief did not disclose details of the impending arrest warrants.

Aside from Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who is currently in hiding, Duterte’s co-perpetrators named by the ICC were Sen. Bong Go, former police chiefs Camilo Cascolan (deceased) and Oscar Albayalde, former NBI director Dante Gierran, former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency director general Isidro Lapeña, former Davao City police chief Vicente Danao and former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.

Duterte’s co-perpetrators, according to ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang in a Feb. 13 court document, allegedly “shared a common plan or agreement to neutralize alleged criminals in the Philippines.”

Matibag said the NBI is ready should the government order them and other law enforcement agencies to enforce the warrants.

As for Dela Rosa, who remains at large after he left the Senate together with Sen. Robinhood Padilla on May 14, Matibag believes the senator is still in the country as there is no record from the Bureau of Immigration of him leaving through the country’s airports.

However, they are not discounting the scenario that Dela Rosa could use the country’s porous borders to elude arrest.

Matibag has deployed dedicated tracker teams to locate and arrest Dela Rosa. The NBI’s regional and district officers are also on the lookout for the wanted senator.

The Department of Justice already declared the ICC warrant against Dela Rosa enforceable after the Supreme Court denied the senator’s request for a temporary restraining order and a status quo ante order, even though the justices have not yet resolved the main issues in the case.

Matibag noted that Dela Rosa may have people assisting him to avoid getting arrested and brought to the ICC in The Hague to face trial.

“Those are all possibilities but again, I appeal to Sen. Bato to peacefully and voluntarily surrender,” he said. — EJ Macababbad