Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla Jr. on Thursday, March 20 admitted that a meeting took place between President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and several Cabinet officials but this was to address rumors of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s impending arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and not to plan it.

Remulla pointed this out during the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs’ hearing on Duterte’s arrest by the ICC led by presidential sister and reelectionist Sen. Imee Marcos, as he deny insinuations the arrest was premeditated by the government.

“There was no mastermind. We were discussing mainly about the former president statement’s in Hong Kong and it was all based in that statement,” Remulla said.

“It was a discussion of a rumor, based on (his) statements, in Hong Kong,” he insisted.

Remulla was referring to the former leader’s March 10 statement to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong during a rally held by the senatorial candidates of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).

In that public address, Duterte divulged an impending release of an arrest warrant against him by the ICC and once again defended his administration’s brutal war on drugs.

Sen. Marcos, chairperson of the foreign relations panel, however, questioned the legitimacy of the meeting: “Cabinet secretaries will gather just for gossip? Don’t they have anything to do?”

To which, the interior secretary retorted: “Call it what you may, ma’am.”

Remulla clarified that “no one knew” that Duterte was about to be arrested by the ICC.

“No one knew. I repeat, no one knew until 3 a.m. of March 11,” he said.

For his part, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, categorically denied insinuations by the Duterte camp that the Philippine government spoke to the ICC.

“We did not assist the ICC. We never had contact with them. The investigation that they conducted was through their own methods, and we did not, in any way, assist them,” the Justice Secretary asserted.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and National Security Adviser (NSA) Eduardo Año, who were also present during the hearing, supported Remulla’s statement and said that the government did not deliberately assist the ICC in Duterte’s arrest.

“The President’s statement is binding, and I defer to Secretary Remulla that no government agency, the Department of National Defense, has ever cooperated with the ICC,” Teodoro said.

“We did not assist ICC in their investigation,” Año stressed, likewise, denying allegations of the government engaging with the ICC.

Responding to Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada’s question as to why the government complied with the ICC’s warrant despite the Philippines’ official withdrawal from the tribunal in 2019, Remulla pointed out Duterte’s surrender was executed through the International Criminal Police Organization or Interpol, which necessitates cooperation among police forces.

“We surrendered an individual to the ICC who was the subject of a warrant of arrest. That’s what we did,” Remulla pointed out.

“We did not surrender to the ICC as a country, but he was surrendered due to a warrant of arrest issued by the ICC, through Interpol,” he stressed.