VICE PRESIDENT Sara Duterte, in an interview with media and vloggers the other day, manifested her thanks to President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
When one does not dig deep into the context with which the “Thank You” words were said by the Vice President, her statement could easily be interpreted that rapprochement between the two is in the works.
However, it is not so. Instead, the reason why VP Sara thanked the President because that the latter had not picked up a fight with the former President and herself (VP Sara), the latter would not have been brought closer to her father, the former President Duterte, and the rest of the other members of the Duterte families.
According to the VP, who is now more than two weeks in The Hague, Netherlands, to make sure that her father’s condition at the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) detention center will be in order. She is also overseeing his defense team’s full organization and giving it the background of the cases filed against the Davaoeno former leader.
And, without batting an eyelash, the VP said during the same interview that she now finds a sister in Veronica “Kitty” Duterte, a daughter of her father with her now live-in partner Honeylet Avancena. She, however, did not mention her relationship with the woman who “eased out” her mother, Elizabeth Zimmerman, from the heart of her father.
She talked about the irony when her “soured” relationship with the President allowed her to have forgiveness with her father, resulting in what she terms as a father-daughter-sister relationship. And it is all because the President’s allowing the arrest and hand-over of her father to the ICC gave her the opportunity to be together with her father at The Hague with their talks limited only to family affairs.
So her profuse, though cynical, “thank you” President Bongbong Marcos.
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During the last hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Presidential Sister Sen. Imee Marcos mentioned an Executive Order (EO) reportedly issued by US President Donald Trump mandating that current and former leaders of countries closely allied with the USA shall be under its protection if they are hailed to the International Criminal Court ICC).
She then raised the question of whether that Trump order covers former President Rodrigo R. Duterte. Senator Imee further raised another question, which is whether or not all government officials who participated in the arrest of Duterte in all its stages will also be punished.
What is happening to the Presidential sister? She seems to be doing a grandstand in the highest order. She raised the questions to her fellow senators who attended the hearing and to the public as well.
While it was not addressed to specific entities or persons, it was apparent that the Ilocana senator was having as the objects of her queries the US government, specifically President Trump.
Really, we are puzzled with the actuations of the lady senator. After all, from the time she brought out the idea of conducting the hearing, she had no emphasis whether it was “in aid of legislation” or whatever.
Her probe on the Duterte arrest, to many, made her some kind of a laughing stock. Imagine doing the probe several days after the arrest and hand-over to the ICC were done. Easily, she could have looked intensely into the provisions of the Rome Statute or the agreement among nations to organize and be members of the ICC.
She could have keenly looked into the responsibilities of a member country and when such responsibilities ceased to be effective.
Now, many are labelling her the woman “too late the hero” and doing it at the expense of her reelection bid and her relationship with her brother President.
Moreover, there is no way she can stop the prosecution of the former President. All the presidential sister-senator can hope for is for the US President to confirm his EO and force, with whatever means, the halt of the former Philippine leader’s trial and have him released by the international court.
And, is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair sending to the US President the official transcript of the deliberations of her Senate body hearing and expecting the former to answer her questions re the EO?
Unfortunately for Madam Imee, she very well knows the US is not a member of the ICC, and whatever it does to interfere with the mandate of the said court could be consideredan act of “belligerence.”
Yes, as a non-member, the ICC cannot interfere with the US. But if it is that country or its government interfering with the affairs of the ICC and its member countries, then the ICC cannot be faulted if it looks at the US as kind of an “international bully.”
