“GLAD I could help.”
This was the response of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., according to Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro, to his estranged Uniteam tandem, Vice President (VP) Sara Duterte, who had earlier thanked him for facilitating her reconciliation with her father, detained former President Rodrigo Duterte (FPRRD).
VP Duterte is currently in The Hague, Netherlands to attend to her father, who was arrested and detained due to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged crimes against humanity during the implementation of his drug war.
“This really is ironic, but I have to thank Bongbong Marcos because there was forgiveness between me and [former President Duterte] for all that has happened in our lives. And we have a relationship now, a father-daughter relationship,” VP Duterte said in an interview with reporters last week.
However, Castro said she should also express gratitude to her father’s case for bringing them closer.
“Mas maganda po siguro kung magpasalamat muna si VP Sara sa kanayang ama mismo dahil kung siya man po ay nagkaroon ng pagkakataon, oras kasama ang kanyang ama ay dahil po ito sa kasong [extrajudicial killings],” Castro said.
(It might be better if VP Sara first thanks her father himself, because if she had the chance or time to be with her father, it is because of the case of extrajudicial killings.)
“Kung hindi naganap o hindi nagawa ang sinasabing mga aksyon patungkol sa war on drugs at walang nag-complaint hindi naman din po sila magkakaroon ng pagkakataon na makapunta sa The Hague. Dahil sa ginawa ng kaniyang ama, dahil sa mga inirereklamo po sakanya, yun po ang naging cause kung bakit sila nasa The Hague,” she added.
(If the alleged actions related to the war on drugs did not happen or were not carried out, and no one filed complaints, they would not have had the opportunity to go to The Hague. Because of what her father did, because of the complaints against him, that is the cause of why they are in The Hague.)
In a Senate hearing, Senator Imee Marcos, the President’s sister but an ally of the Dutertes, said the administration aided the ICC in FPRRD’s arrest even though it no longer has jurisdiction in the country after it withdrew its membership to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the body, in 2019. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)