Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa —Senate Public Relations and Info Bureau
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa once more backpedaled on his earlier place difficult the legality of the arrest warrant that the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) had issued in opposition to former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Dela Rosa, the previous Philippine Nationwide Police chief who enforced Duterte’s bloody crackdown on medicine, conceded on Saturday that the arrest of his former boss on March 11 was legally sound.
“We’re not questioning the validity of the warrant as a result of (Duterte) is already within the custody of the ICC,” Dela Rosa stated in a radio interview on dwIZ.
READ: Dela Rosa breaks silence: ‘I’m prepared to affix Duterte’
“In any other case, Duterte ought to have been launched (from detention) and returned to the nation if there’s no warrant of arrest. So there’s no query concerning the validity of the warrant,” he stated.
What’s nonetheless questionable
However Dela Rosa stated what remained questionable was the choice of the Philippine authorities to cooperate with the Worldwide Felony Police Group (Interpol) in implementing the ICC arrest order.
READ: Dela Rosa explains HK absence: ‘I received information on ICC arrest warrant’
“Why did we cooperate primarily based on Interpol’s diffusion discover? Can the Interpol dictate on us? Are we not a sovereign state?” he requested.
The senator insisted that President Marcos ought to have simply turned down the Interpol’s request for coordination in serving the warrant because the nation ceased to be a member of the ICC in 2019 on orders from Duterte.
READ: Rodrigo Duterte arrest petition cites Bato dela Rosa’s drug struggle position
However Philippine officers, together with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, have maintained that the handover of Duterte was aboveboard because it was on the request of Interpol and never in cooperation with the ICC.
Staying in ‘consolation zone’
Requested if he would honor an analogous arrest order that the ICC would possibly situation in opposition to him, Dela Rosa echoed Duterte’s powerful stance previous to his arrest and flight to The Hague, the Netherlands.
“Why will I face that warrant after we now not acknowledge the ICC? That warrant has no jurisdiction over my particular person,” he stated.
“If that warrant was issued by the Supreme Courtroom or the native courts, then I’ll face it. Why will I honor a warrant coming from a overseas entity whose jurisdiction now not applies to us?”
Dela Rosa once more declared that “I can’t enable myself to be arrested”—however that he wouldn’t go away the nation simply to elude seize.
“I can’t go away my consolation zone,” he stated.
Senate President Francis Escudero earlier stated he would enable Dela Rosa to take refuge within the Senate till he had exhausted all authorized cures to stop his arrest.
Learn Subsequent
Disclaimer: The feedback uploaded on this website don’t essentially signify or mirror the views of administration and proprietor of Cebudailynews. We reserve the correct to exclude feedback that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial requirements.
