Former President Rodrigo Duterte expressed through his daughter, sitting Vice President Sara Duterte, his wishes to return to his homeland at the soonest possible time, as he may die “anytime” of old age.
It has been close to a month since the elder Duterte was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), flown to The Hague, and detained in Scheveningen Prison. Before facing reporters, Sara Duterte was on the phone with him for an hour.
“He repeatedly said, and I told him, ‘I understand where you are coming from and I totally agree with the urgency.’ He wants to go back to the Philippines. He said, ‘I am an old man, I can die anytime but I want to die in my country,’” Sara Duterte told reporters.
“And I told him that we understand that you want it now and it is urgent. And he said, ‘Yes.’ And I told him that the lawyers are working every day on your case and there is a lawyer everyday visiting you, explaining what they are doing,” the Vice President added.
Earlier, Duterte’s appointed lead defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman said his team has plans to file a petition for the former president’s interim release.
Should the court accept the petition but remand him to the custody of an ICC member country instead, Sara Duterte said she trusts her father’s defense team to employ the best legal remedy.
Moreover, Sara Duterte disclosed her father’s sentiments after hearing his supporters amassed by the detention facility cheering for him.
“And so he said, ‘Please extend them my thank you. We all hope for the best. And everything I did, I did for my country. Whether that statement is acceptable or not, but everything I did, I did for my country. And I want that message out to the world,’” Sara Duterte said.
Whether the former president was owning up to the extrajudicial killings carried out during his War on Drugs, his daughter did not confirm.
“Unfortunately, I cannot speak beyond his words. So, I guess he expected that there will be different interpretations because he said ‘Whether that statement is acceptable or not, that is my statement.’ Unfortunately, I cannot give you an interpretation and I do not want to go beyond these words,” she said.
According to Reuters, the government has acknowledged the deaths of 6,248 individuals during Duterte’s anti-drug campaign. However, the ICC prosecutor asserts that the death toll is closer to 30,000.
Despite the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute in 2019, the ICC maintains jurisdiction over crimes committed in member states during their period of membership.
