By Leonardo Micua

 

MANY were surprised at the sudden turn of events in the country when former President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by Interpol agents implementing an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, with full assistance from Philippine authorities, last March 11 upon arriving from Hong Kong.

After hours of stand-off inside the military’s Villamor Air Base, FPPRD was put on a chartered plane, against his will, that took off to The Hague in the Netherlands via Dubai, where he will stand trial before the ICC for allegedly committing crimes against humanity, the basis of which was the alleged killing of over 6,000 people in the course of his state-sponsored drug war.

The ICC warrant of arrest was somehow expected, but the big surprise was the timing.

But FPRRD may have already been aware with speculations that he was in Hong Kong to seek asylum in China, but his friend President Xi Jin Ping did not approve as his country might lose face in the international community.

Digong’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, called it “a state kidnapping” and immediately flew to the Netherlands to join the legal team that will be defending her father.

His lawyers tried to secure a Temporary Restraining Order from the Supreme Court as a last remedy to prevent Interpol from taking FPRRD away, but the country’s highest court denied this and first sought comments from Philippine government officials who are named respondents.

As the drama at the Villamor Air Base was unfolding, kin of EJK victims gathered inside a church in Metro Manila to thank God for answering their prayers for the arrest of FPRRD, the man behind the unprecedented drug war in the Philippines.

Die-hard Duterte Supporters or DDS accused the Philippine government of surrendering its sovereign right to protect its citizens when it gave away Digong to a foreign body like the ICC.

The ICC issued the warrant for Digong’s arrest even though the Philippines is no longer a member-country of the Rome Statute ever since its withdrawal in 2019 at Duterte’s behest. But accordingly, Digong is being made to account for the crimes allegedly committed by him before 2019.

He is the first Philippine President in history arrested by Interpol by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by an international court, and the first Asian leader to suffer such fate.

Former Justice Secretary and Human Rights Commissioner Leila de Lima, who was in Dagupan on March 10 to campaign for the Mamamayang Liberal Party-list of which she is number one nominee, has been quoted on national media saying Digong’s arrest is part of the justice process. While here in Dagupan, she noted that she was detained for almost seven years and released only in 2023 on “trump-up, made-up and fabricated drug charges” that were filed during Duterte’s presidency.

She did not blink an eye in blaming Digong and his Justice secretary for giving her a sad fate.

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Can’t the Department of Public Works and Highways as well as the police do something to prevent any more unnecessary gridlocks along the Don Teofilo Sison Bridge in Villasis? 

Such a gridlock happened two weeks ago when traffic stood still for hours due to a multiple vehicle collision in the middle of the bridge that could have easily been avoided if these agencies put a limit to passing vehicles. 

If many still don’t know, the DTS bridge, named after a respected former Pangasinan governor who later became a defense secretary, by virtue of a resolution passed by the old provincial board sponsored by then Vice Governor Porferio Sison, connects Barangay Carmen in Rosales to Barangay Puelay in Villasis. 

The old bridge collapsed during the July 16, 1990 earthquake and was quickly replaced during the few years remaining under the administration of then President Corazon Aquino, to pave the way for faster north-south traffic across the Agno River. 

We learned that big cargo trucks loaded with several tons of goods are still opting to pass the Manila North Road, inevitably passing the two-way DTS Bridge, to avoid the toll cost at the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx).

We dread that if the DPWH and the police will not divert the big trucks to the TPLEx, the DTS Bridge may follow the fate of the recently fallen Cabagan Bridge in Isabela that collapsed, not because of wrong design but due to a passing overweight cargo truck.

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