Manila, March 22 (IANS) Philippine Senator Imee Marcos said on Saturday that she is still studying whether to conduct another Senate committee hearing on the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Marcos, chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, told a forum that there are calls for a second hearing, saying that some volunteers want to voice their opinions.
“I think some more studies are still required given that international laws are involved, the Philippine Constitution and the rights of the accused and the bill of rights are also involved, as well as many laws that in many cases have not been tried or tested before,” Marcos said.
Marcos, an elder sister of Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, said the committee is in “a mad rush” to come up with a report for Thursday’s hearing.
“(The committee), like the rest of the Philippines, want clarity and action on this,” She said, “We are carefully studying these laws, line by line, including the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). But the Philippine Constitution must prevail.”
Marcos questioned in the first hearing if the “Philippines has become a province of The Hague,” lamenting that the 79-year-old former President was made to answer to a foreign court.
On March 11, the International Criminal Police Organisation arrested Duterte over a warrant issued by the ICC for crimes against humanity related to his controversial “war on drugs” campaign.
On Thursday, Marcos said the law should prevail: “But whose law? Ours or theirs?”
She added Filipinos are not “slaves” to foreigners and that the country should not surrender its citizens to the jurisdiction of foreigners.
Duterte is the first former Asian leader to be detained and face trial before the ICC.
–IANS
int/as
