THE SUPREME Court (SC) En Banc issued a new resolution in the highly publicized consolidated petitions on the arrest and transfer of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Instead of rendering a decision, the High Court directed all parties involved to submit comprehensive Memoranda within a non-extendible period of 30 days.
The resolution, linked recently on the SC website, covers three consolidated cases: G.R. No. 278763 (Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus filed by Sebastian Z. Duterte), G.R. No. 278768 (Petition for Habeas Corpus filed by Veronica A. Duterte), and G.R. No. 278798 (Petition for Habeas Corpus, Certiorari, and Prohibition filed by Rep. Paolo Z. Duterte).
Seeking clarification on key jurisdictional issues
The SC’s directive aims to clarify several critical constitutional and legal questions raised by the petitions, which challenge the executive department’s actions in enforcing the ICC’s warrant.
The Court required the parties—including the Duterte petitioners and government respondents led by the executive secretary and officials from the Departments of Justice and Interior and Local Government—to address the following:
- Continuing Obligation: Whether Article 127(2) of the Rome Statute imposes a continuing obligation on the Philippines to cooperate with the ICC, despite the country’s formal withdrawal in 2019.
- ICC Jurisdiction: Whether the ICC can still exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the former President for crimes allegedly committed while the Philippines was a member of the tribunal.
- Legality of Arrest: Whether the arrest of former President Duterte, executed by Philippine authorities based on the ICC warrant, was legal under both international and domestic laws.
- Constitutional Rights: Whether the former President’s constitutional and statutory rights were violated during his arrest and immediate transfer to the ICC detention facility in The Hague, Netherlands.
The consolidated petitions stemmed from the dramatic events of March 11, 2025, when Duterte was arrested shortly after arriving from Hong Kong and immediately flown out of the country to face charges of crimes against humanity before the ICC over his bloody “war on drugs” campaign.
The petitioners are seeking a Writ of Habeas Corpus for his immediate release and return to the Philippines, arguing that his arrest and subsequent surrender to a foreign tribunal had no legal basis following the country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute.
The Supreme Court’s decision to require exhaustive memoranda signals its intention to rule on the core legal and constitutional implications of the country’s relationship with the ICC, an issue of paramount national interest.
