“SHOCKING” ARRESTS: Expelled congressman Arnolfo Teves (top right photo) in Timor-Leste last Tuesday, May 27, and ex-president Rodrigo Duterte in Manila, 77 days earlier, March 11.
SIMILARITIES, DIFFERENCES: Former president Rodrigo Duterte, 80, and former congressman Arnolfo Teves, 53, were separately taken into custody in one country and transferred to another: Duterte arrested in Manila, then ferried to Netherlands for trial; Teves seized in Timor-Leste, then flown to the Philippines for trial.
Duterte is facing the charge of crimes against humanity, which involves systematic and large-scale murder, torture or other physical violence, when he was Davao City mayor (2013-2016) and, later, president of the country (2016-2022). Negros Oriental congressman Teves (2016-2023) is charged with the March 4, 2023 multiple murders, including the killing of then governor, Roel Degamo, and nine others.
The striking similarity, though obscured or distorted by other interests: Both high-profile public persons who are made to account for a crime or crimes. Both would’ve gotten away with it had they not been taken into custody and set for trial.
HAD THE GOVERNMENT NOT ACTED. If Duterte and Teves hadn’t been arrested and things had gone on as they were before the “shocking” incidents: Duterte would’ve been left alone in the country, enjoying retirement under the protection of his children: a city mayor, a congressman and a vice president who’s preparing to become president. Teves would’ve continued a life of “hiding” in public, “vacationing” in Timor-Leste, savoring such pleasures as playing golf and night-clubbing.
CASES OF KIDNAPPING? It would be a stretch to brand the Duterte and Teves arrests as “kidnapping” since the police actions both had the color of law and the support of their respective governments.
The Philippine National Police and the Timor-Leste police-immigration used the Interpol “red notice” in their separate operations and, in Teves’s case, a court arrest warrant.
As to whether each was actually legal or not, Duterte has the right to assail before the International Criminal Court (ICC) the warrant and the procedure used in enforcing it. Teves may no longer question his deportation from Timor-Leste, which its government considered a “matter of national security,” but he can complain before our courts for any violation of due process after the transfer of custody.
MIX OF POLITICS IN DUTERTE CASE. Despite repeated declarations of Malacañang that President Marcos Jr. merely did his job of enforcing law and order in making possible Duterte’s appearance before the ICC, most likely he wouldn’t have taken the move had the Marcoses and Dutertes remained allies not long after the Bongbong-Inday Sara tandem captured the two highest seats of the government in the 2022 elections.
They have become political and personal enemies, highlighted by the public threat of VP Sara to have the Marcos Jr. couple and the House speaker killed if she herself were killed and a dumping of Marcos Sr.’s remains from Libingan ng mga Bayani into the West Philippine Sea.
So the suspicion of political motive cannot be ruled out, even if the Marcos motives were totally noble in going after Dutertes’ patriarch and the public, in a poll survey, wanted the former president to to account for the “thousands of casualties” in his drug war from November 2011 to June 1, 2016. Inevitably, in the public mind, the political-personal factor overwhelms the public-interest element.
That cannot be said of the Teves case, where the course of justice was delayed by the accused himself who took flight after the warrant for his arrest was issued. Teves’ country of refuge, Timor-Leste, apparently changed its mind. After upholding his asylum plea a number of times, Timor-Leste arrested him again and turned the detainee over to Philippine law enforcers.
GOVERNMENTS COOPERATED. Duterte couldn’t have been arrested and flown to The Hague without the approval and participation of the Philippine Government. Teves couldn’t have been arrested and flown to the Philippines without the approval and participation of the government of Timor-Leste.
President Marcos Jr. could’ve refused, as he did early on, before the time the Marcoses and Dutertes wanted to bury the figurative hatchet on one another’s back. As to Teves, even without personal or political consideration, his long-delayed arrest would get points for the administration that just lost face in the senators’ mid-term race.