Vice President Sara Duterte has expressed strong objection on the supposed “welfare check” conducted by officials of the Philippine Embassy in The Hague on her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, alleging President Marcos for being the one behind the orders.

In a statement on Wednesday, Sept. 24, the Vice President did not mince words as she wailed at the intrusion and called out both the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Philippine government.

“I have received disturbing information from Malacañang that a report about Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte was submitted to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. by the Philippine Embassy in The Hague,” she said, adding that officials entered the detention unit on “false pretense” of conducting a welfare check and interviewed the elder Duterte.

“These are nothing but orders of President Marcos disguised as consular functions, and we strongly object to such visits. FPRRD does not need you, our family will take care of him,” she stressed.

The Vice President said that since her father’s detention in March, there was always at least one or two family members who visited him every day “to guarantee his well-being and humane treatment.”

“The permission given by the ICC in allowing the agents of the very government that abducted FPRRD to intrude upon him, without seeking permission from family members who are in the Hague, places his life and safety in imminent danger,” she pointed out.

“If such sham "welfare checks" are allowed to continue, then the ICC and the Philippine Government must be prepared to answer, fully and directly, for any harm that comes to former president Duterte —including, should the worst happen, his death in custody as a direct result of these intrusions, the false pretense of conducting a ‘welfare check’,” the official said.

Duterte pointed out that President Marcos should instead focus on checking on “detained, distressed, abandoned or neglected” overseas Filipinos around the world “who have not had the benefit of a single welfare check from the Philippine government.”

On Wednesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed the visit of the officials from the Philippine Embassy in the Hague to former president Duterte at the ICC’s detention center to conduct a welfare check on him.

The DFA explained the welfare check was part of the embassy's "functions under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and relevant Philippine laws to protect the welfare of all Filipinos.”

“This is a duty of all Philippine Foreign Service Posts and is no different from what the DFA does for other Filipino citizens who are in detention abroad,” it said.