Panelo files writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Kitty Duterte to bring back Rodrigo Duterte
Former chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo has filed a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte's daughter Veronica "Kitty" Duterte.
The petition seeks to bring back the older Duterte to the Philippines after the International Criminal Court arrested him for crimes against humanity on the morning of March 11 and sent him to its headquarters in The Hague in the Netherlands at night.
Panelo filed the petition before the Supreme Court with his son Salvador Paolo Jr on March 12.
It would be "against the Philippine government for detaining a Filipino citizen, former President Rodrigo Duterte, kidnapping him, and surrendering him to a foreign institution," he said in a statement on the late evening of March 11.
According to Panelo, the petition seeks to compel the government to bring Duterte back and for it to "account for its constitutional transgressions on the rights of PRRD (Duterte), and its unpatriotic and abject surrender of the country’s sovereignty to ICC, that has no jurisdiction over the former."
A writ of habeas corpus is a legal remedy requiring a detained individual to be brought before the court.
In a separate statement during the day, Panelo called Duterte's arrest "unlawful."
"The [Philippine National Police] didn't allow one of his lawyers to meet him at the airport and to question legal basis for PRRD's arrest," Panelo said. "He was deprived of legal representation at the time of his arrest."
Panelo noted that the PNP had no hard copy of the arrest warrant. He also called the arrest warrant "spurious," saying the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines. "The government action will make the arresting team as well as the public officials ordering the arrest criminally liable."
In 2018, Duterte withdrew from the ICC as a member-state, taking effect the following year.
But according to the arrest warrant, the ICC still had jurisdiction over the Philippines as it focused on the killings that occurred while it was still a member-state.
The Philippines is also a member of the International Criminal Police Organization, which can seek Duterte's arrest on behalf of the ICC.
ICC 'not obligated' to obey Philippine court
Ruben Carranza of the International Center for Transitional Justice, meanwhile, told the ABS-CBN News Channel that the ICC is not obligated to obey an order from the Philippine court.
Specifically, Carranza mentioned a temporary restraining order. Sen. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, former police chief who implemented Duterte's war on drugs, filed a petition asking the SC to issue a TRO to prevent agencies from cooperating with the ICC in enforcing its arrest warrant against Duterte.
Carranza noted that one can only "restrain something that has not been done."
He also pointed out that there was nothing wrong with Duterte's arrest as it was legal.
"Filipinos should understand that this is not an exceptional set of circumstances in the Philippines," he said, adding that the ICC has also been involved in other countries whose heads of state or former presidents have been arrested with an ICC warrant.
"A temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court will not be something that the ICC is bound to have to obey and return Rodrigo Duterte," Carranza added.
In any case, he said the supposed petition was already moot as Duterte was already in transit to The Hague.
Carranza also noted that while the Philippines is free to not cooperate with the ICC, it still has "residual obligations not necessarily to cooperate in the arrest but, in general, to not defeat the purpose of the ICC itself."
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday evening that his predecessor's arrest was in compliance with the country's commitments to Interpol.
"If we don't do that, they will no longer help us with other cases involving Filipino fugitives abroad," he said.
Duterte has been arrested for his alleged crimes against humanity over his bloody war on drugs following a warrant from the ICC.
He was immediately taken into police custody upon his arrival from Hong Kong on March 11.
At the time, Kitty took to Instagram Story the situation, saying in all caps that Duterte was under "illegal detention" and there's no "warrant of arrest." She posted photos and even went live at one point to protest his arrest.
The Prosecution applied for an arrest warrant for Duterte on Feb. 10 over crimes against humanity committed in the Philippines within Nov. 11, 2011, and March 16, 2019.
The warrant, obtained by The Philippine STAR, stated that he was being arrested for murder, torture, and rape—which is part of the 15 forms of crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute—that happened in his drug war.
Upon assuming office in 2016, the Duterte administration launched its flagship bloody war on drugs called Oplan Tokhang, which saw the execution of thousands of suspected drug peddlers, users, and small-time criminals.
Based on the government's "Real Numbers" data, a total of 6,229 individuals were killed during anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016, to Jan. 31, 2022.
Rights groups, however, estimated that the number of deaths from the bloody anti-narcotics campaign reached as high as 27,000.
