The impeached Vice President has issued a comment on the arrest of her father.
In a statement on Tuesday, March 11, Vice President Sara Duterte shared her sentiments on the warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.
The VP wrote, “[t]oday, our own government has surrendered a Filipino citizen—even a former President at that —to foreign powers.”
She also called it as a “blatant affront to our sovereignty and an insult to every Filipino who believes in our nation’s independence.“
Vice President Duterte also said that her father has been allegedly denied of his fundamental rights.
“Since he was taken this morning, he has not been brought before any competent judicial authority to assert his rights and to allow him to avail of reliefs provided by law.”
VP Sara also revealed that PRRD will be brought to The Hague, Netherlands —where the ICC is headquartered — this evening, which she described as an act of “oppression and persecution.”
“This act shows the world that this government is willing to abandon its own citizen and betray the very essence of our sovereignty and national dignity,” the embattled second-in-line added.
Her comments come hours after the warrant of arrest was served to former President Duterte as he deplaned a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong at 9:20 am.
The warrant is from the International Criminal Court, where the ex-chief executive is facing charges for crimes against humanity over his controversial war on drugs and the related extrajudicial killings (EJK).