VP Sara denies his father asked Australia to host him during interim release
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/June 27) – Vice President Sara Duterte denied that the defense team of his father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, has asked Australia to host him in case his petition for interim release was granted by the International Criminal Court.
“I’d like to clarify that the defense team of President Rodrigo Duterte never reached out to the Australian government to discuss his interim release. There is no application from former President Rodrigo Duterte for interim release in Australia,” the younger Duterte said.
Manila-based media outlets reported on Friday that the Australian government has ruled out hosting the former President for interim release after he petitioned the ICC to be temporarily freed in an unnamed country.
While she was in Australia for a “personal trip” from June 20 to June 24, national reports quoted the Vice President as saying that his father’s defense team is considering Australia to host the interim release of the Duterte patriarch.
“Australia is in the list of countries that are considered by the lawyers, but I am not here for the interim release. Not for this visit,” she said in an ambush interview on Tuesday.
Presidential Communications Secretary Claire Castro reacted to the Vice President’s statement, saying the latter “might be violating her obligation to the people” for going to trips abroad.
But during her speech at Councilor’s Lounge of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, Duterte said the Palace officials were “intellectually challenged” for not understanding that personal trips are different from business trips.
“If you are using the government’s money, that is official business. If you are not using the government’s money, that is personal. If you are using the government’s money, that is official business. You need to submit a report. If it is personal and you are not using the government’s money, you don’t need to submit a report. That is how simple it is,” Duterte said.
She said she was shocked to receive a letter from a certain “Hasna” at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that the country has turned down a request to host her father in case he was granted interim release.
She said the copy she got has “no date received and only had a first name with the last name blurred”.
Australia is a party to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court.
Perhaps, the Vice President said, her statement was misinterpreted and “maybe this is just a form of propaganda”.
“I would not be surprised if this is a propaganda coming from the… from the administration,” she said
Former President Duterte is facing charges of crime against humanity of murder for deaths linked to his bloody “war on drugs” during his Presidency and time as mayor of Davao City.
The prosecution in the case against him before the ICC cited his hostile remarks in the past against the court in registering its opposition to his appeal for interim release. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)
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