ICC asserts independence after latest Sara Duterte attack

MANILA, Philippines — The International Criminal Court (ICC) asserted its mandate as an independent and impartial body in response to a statement made by Vice President Sara Duterte that her father’s case had gained traction only because the tribunal was a “lapdog” of her family’s political enemies.

Duterte continued with her attack on the ICC, where she again visited her father and later addressed a group of supporters gathered outside the tribunal’s headquarters at The Hague in the Netherlands on Wednesday.

Article continues after this advertisement

In a statement sent to the Inquirer on Thursday night, ICC spokesperson Oriane Maillet said the court “is an international judicial institution which carries out its mandate independently and impartially, in accordance with its founding treaty, the Rome Statute.”

Maillet declined to give any further statements on the matter.

READ: Trillanes to Sara Duterte: ICC is no one’s lapdog

In her latest tirade, Duterte described the ICC as a “tuta” (lapdog) or a “puppet” of President Marcos and former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

‘Poster boy’

Trillanes was one of the individuals who filed a communication in 2017 asking the ICC to investigate former President Rodrigo Duterte, the Vice President’s father, and hold him accountable for the thousands killed during the ex-leader’s war on drugs.

Article continues after this advertisement

“Yes, they are traitors to a Filipino and to the country. But more than that, the ICC is a lapdog of Trillanes and Marcos. That’s it,” she said, drawing cheers from a crowd of supporters.

Article continues after this advertisement

“He (former President Duterte) is the poster boy right now of ICC. The one and only. ‘Oh, we have an Asian now. We’re done with the Blacks. Let’s go to the Asians. To hell with the Whites. We cannot go after them? Let’s go after this one person who was delivered by Marcos to us,’” she added.

According to the Vice President, the ICC is proceeding with her father’s trial since it has no other active case.

The tribunal, however, has at least seven accused individuals currently in custody, including the elder Duterte. One of them, Khaled Mohammed El Hishri, a Libyan national and a former militia commander, is also accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes, and will soon face trial after his charges were confirmed last July.

Rodrigo Duterte is facing trial starting Nov. 30 on charges that he was “criminally responsible” for the death of 78 drug war victims.

‘No one’s puppet’

Trillanes, in a statement on X on Friday, said: “Sara has truly lost her mind. The ICC is no one’s puppet. Digong’s (Rodrigo Duterte’s) case before the ICC is the result of an in-depth investigation that spanned several years. Furthermore, we Filipinos know that the thousands of killings actually took place due to Digong’s war on drugs policy.”

For human rights lawyer Gilbert Andres, one of the Filipino legal representatives for the victims, Vice President Duterte is merely “gaslighting the ICC.”

Skin problem

“VP Sara is forgetting that the victims of Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs are crying out for justice, truth and accountability, so let’s respect the process of the ICC,” he told the Inquirer in an interview on Friday.

Palace press officer Claire Castro on Thursday called the Vice President’s latest tirades “baseless, pointless and useless.”

The Vice President, whose two-week foreign trip was approved by Malacañang, said she visited her 81-year-old father and that he was “doing okay” except for a skin problem.

“We’re trying to ask the health unit of the detention center what (the skin problem) is all about, but we appreciate that they have done something about it,” she said in an earlier interview at The Hague.

“I understand there was a cream applied on the skin boil, skin rash—I really do not know what it is. Other than that, (there were the) usual aches and pains of an 81-year-old man,” she said.

“They are very reddish and they are pimple-looking … It’s a concern because (he) is diabetic, so as much as possible we don’t want him to have wounds in any part of his body,” she said. —WITH A REPORT FROM JOHN ERIC MENDOZA