Chiz: Sovereignty not compromised with Rody arrest

With no cases yet filed in local courts against former president Rodrigo Duterte, his arrest and flight to The Hague to face trial for crimes against humanity cannot be considered a surrender of the country's sovereignty, Senate President Francis Escudero said yesterday.

- CECILLE SUERTE FELIPE

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum, Escudero stressed that the country's withdrawal from the Rome Statute does not remove the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) over Duterte's case.

"In the first place, those who filed the case before the ICC are Filipinos and not foreigners. It's also Filipinos who decided to do this," Escudero said.

He said that as emphasized by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, "there was no foreign interference involved, and there is no pending case against Duterte here that would justify removing from a Filipino judge jurisdiction over this case and transferring it to a foreign court."

"In the case of former president Duterte, there is no pending case for him to confront, and that is the venue chosen by the victims and complainants in their pursuit of justice," Escudero explained, referring to the ICC.

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