Metro Manila, Philippines – The Senate has taken a stand on foreign arrests, adopting a resolution that seeks to ensure local legal remedies for Filipinos, though one of the three senators who voted against it said it effectively targets the International Criminal Court (ICC).
During its plenary session on Tuesday, March 17, a majority of senators agreed to adopt Senate Resolution 307, which expresses the sense of the chamber “to protect all Filipinos against extrajudicial rendition and guarantee them a reasonable time prior to their surrender by or extradition from the Philippines to seek redress from the courts and avail of legal remedies.”
“The bottom line of this resolution is that, for whatever reason, every Filipino should be able to run to [a Philippine] court before he is removed from the country,” Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said.
He accepted amendments proposed by Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, which tempered the language of the resolution.
Cayetano agreed to change the term “extraordinary rendition” to “extrajudicial rendition,” acknowledging the negative connotation previously raised by Lacson.
Sotto moved to delete a strongly worded clause: “Whereas, want of due process reared its ugly head in 2025, when the executive, exercising what it calls ‘an executive option’ when it surrendered former President Rodrigo Duterte and readily implemented an arrest warrant issued against no less than a former chief executive by the International Criminal Court (ICC), and immediately surrendered him to such tribunal, all without affording him reasonable opportunity to seek redress from our own judicial system and despite the fact that there is no applicable extradition or treaty.”
Sotto suggested replacing it with: “Whereas in 2025, a warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) was implemented to apprehend former President Rodrigo Duterte.”
Cayetano said it was just “fair and clear.”
”Anyway, Mr. President, everyone has a stand on this issue at nasa Supreme Court naman. So I think just stating it factually the way the Senate president did, I think would be clear to everyone,” he said.
Only three senators voted against the measure — Deputy Majority Leader Risa Hontiveros, and Senators Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan.
“While couched in general terms, this resolution arises from specific circumstances involving the former President,” Hontiveros said.
“Ang totoong pinapatungkulan ng resolution na ito [What this resolution is really targeting is]… a surrender to the ICC following Section 17 of the Republic Act 9851,” she added.
Hontiveros said while the Constitution guarantees due process, it is not confined to a local court room.
“Ginawa po ang ICC para po magkaroon ng espasyo ang mga biktima na hindi makakuha ng hustisya dahil estado ang kalaban, dahil makapangyarihan ang kalaban [The ICC was created to provide a space for victims who cannot get justice because the state is the opponent, because the opponent is powerful]. They deserve due process too,” she added.
Pangilinan, chairman of the committee on justice and human rights, said that while he as a lawyer acknowledges issues on due process, legality, and sovereignty surrounding extrajudicial or extraordinary rendition, as well as a pending case before the Supreme Court on the matter, lawmakers should not overlook the plight of families of victims of extrajudicial killings.
“Usapin din ito ng hustisya para sa kanila… yung libo-libong pinatay sa ngalan ng Oplan Double Barrel – na siyang paratang sa ICC case ngayon – yung libo-libong iyon ay hindi nabigyan ng due process,” he said.
[Translation: This is also a matter of justice for them… the thousands killed in the name of Oplan Double Barrel – which is the basis of the current ICC case – were not given due process.]
Duterte has been detained at the ICC detention facility in The Hague, Netherlands, since March 2025 over a crimes against humanity case for murder due to alleged extrajudicial killings in the war on drugs.
Two sitting senators have been named co-perpetrators, Duterte’s former Philippine National Police chief Bato dela Rosa, and former aide Bong Go.
