The Duterte family received “credible information” that former President Rodrigo Duterte was found unconscious on the floor of his room inside the detention facility of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and was subsequently subjected to laboratory tests, Vice President Sara Duterte said on Saturday, Sept. 27.
In a statement, the Vice President claimed that their family was not informed of what had happened to the Duterte patriarch, raising concerns about the transparency and responsiveness of the ICC.
“These alarming developments raise grave concerns about the capacity of the ICC to guarantee the security and safety of FPRRD,” the statement read.
“The continued detention of former president Duterte under such troubling conditions is not only unjust but inhumane. It amounts to punishment without having been convicted of any crime,” the statement added.
She further decried that the ICC could not even swiftly address an “easily treatable” problem—her father’s ingrown toenail—and that it has “persistently ignored the clear need for a 24-hour bedside caregiver.”
“If the ICC is to remain true to its mandate as a court of justice, it cannot turn a blind eye to the health and wellness condition of FPRRD. To deprive an elderly man — abducted, denied his rights under Philippine law, and subjected to surveillance disguised as ‘welfare checks’ — of basic dignity and proper care is not justice. This is cruelty,” she stressed.
The Vice President was referring to the welfare check done by officials of the Philippines Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands, which the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said was part of the embassy’s consular duties to its detained citizens abroad.
She insisted that “there is no other reason” for her father’s continued detention “except to make him suffer for the complaint of disgraced former senator.”
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, the former president’s staunchest critic, was the one who initiated the crimes against humanity of murder charges before the ICC.
Instead, the Vice President claimed that her father does not pose a flight risk, has never threatened and complainants, and has no intention to assume his duties as mayor of Davao City.
“The ICC should act now to rectify this gross injustice and ensure that former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte is afforded the proper care and, ultimately, the humanitarian considerations he rightfully deserves,” she said.
The Duterte camp is seeking the interim release of the former president to a third-party country, and is also urging the ICC’s pre-trial chamber for the adjournment of all legal proceedings against him because of his declining cognitive functions.
The former chief executive is facing multiple counts of murder charges for the thousands of killings in the name of his administration’s brutal drug war.
He was scheduled for a confirmation of charges hearing on Sept. 23 but this was postponed by the pre-trial court, citing the defense’s claim that Duterte is unfit to stand trial. (Raymund Antonio)
