DAVAO CITY – Kidapawan City Mayor Jose Paolo Evangelista said it was ironic that the government handed over former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court in The Hague in The Netherlands last week.
EVANGELISTA
Evangelista, a lawyer, believes that the former President should have been given a chance to be tried in the country instead of handing him over to the foreign court.
He said that the government would even exert all means to bring back home distressed Overseas Filipino Workers, even those accused of drug trafficking, homicide, and on death row.
“And yet here’s a former President accused of crimes against humanity and could be tried here, he was still sent abroad,” Evangelista said.
On March 11, the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, with the Philippine National Police, served the warrant of arrest issued by the ICC against Duterte for alleged crimes against humanity during his campaign against illegal drugs.
Lawyers and supporters of the former President have questioned the arrest, saying the ICC has no jurisdiction in the country since the Philippines withdrew from the organization on March 17, 2019.
Duterte’s former presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the former Chief Executive’s arrest was illegal and a surrender of Philippine sovereignty to foreigners by State authorities.
Supporters of the former President also said that he must be tried in the country's local courts.
“For centuries, our forefathers died for our country to repel foreign interference. And just like that, they give up the most loved President to foreigners to answer for ‘crimes’ defined by the same foreigners? Wa ko kasabot (I don’t understand). I stand for PH sovereignty. I stand with FPRRD,” Evangelista wrote on his Facebook page.
Following Duterte’s arrest, Evangelista pointed out that many Filipinos, especially in Mindanao, are enraged. “Because he is one of us, he understands our suffering, he understands our pain, he lives like ordinary people do.”
A day after the former President’s arrest, Kidapawan City hosted a prayer rally where at least 5,000 people gathered. Evangelista provided space by closing a portion of the national highway in the downtown area of the city. The mayor also allowed Duterte supporters to conduct free T-shirt printing services at the City Pavilion.