Sara Duterte open to attend next hearings on Rodrigo’s arrest

Vice President Sara Duterte has expressed willingness to attend the upcoming hearings on the arrest of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The Vice President said that Senator Imee Marcos had invited her to attend the hearings which she presides as chairperson of the Senate committee on foreign relations.  

Sara is now back in the Philippines after more than three weeks of being in the Netherlands to provide aid to her father who is currently detained in The Hague

She joined the first Senate hearing on March 20 via a video conferencing platform but did not attend the second hearing last week, April 3, due to a “hectic” schedule and the time difference between Manila and the Netherlands.

“Pero kung meron namang future hearings na meron silang tanong sa akin, tulad ng kung anong nangyari sa Hong Kong or anong nangyari pagdating ni Pangulong Duterte sa Manila, willing naman po ako sumagot,” she said in an interview in The Hague on Friday. 

(But if there are future hearings where there would be questions for me, like what happened in Hong Kong or what happened when President Duterte arrived in Manila, I am willing to answer.)

“I am open in the future hearings in the event that she (Imee Marcos) needs my input in the committee hearings that she is conducting in the Senate,” she added.

On Monday, Malacañang confirmed that the executive officials would also attend the next Senate hearing on Duterte’s arrest on April 10. 

Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Atty. Claire Castro said the following officials may attend the next Senate hearing: 

• Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin ''Boying'' Remulla; 
• Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon; 
• Chief State Counsel Dennis Arvin Chan; 
• Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo; 
• Philippines Center on Transnational Crime executive director Anthony Alcantara; 
• Philippine National Police chief General Rommel Francisco Marbil; 
• PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Major General Nicolas Torre III; 
• Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac; 
• special envoy Markus Lacanilao; 
• Atty. RJ Bernal; and 
• Atty. Ferdinand Loji Santiago.

To recall, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin previously invoked executive privilege, not only in answering certain questions, but also in the attendance of Cabinet officials to congressional investigations as regards the arrest.

Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on March 11 and was brought to the International Criminal Court, with the plane carrying him to the Netherlands arriving the next day.

He is detained in The Hague for charges of crimes against humanity for the extrajudicial killings during his administration's war on drugs.

Sara Duterte arrived in Amsterdam on March 13 shortly before her father was brought inside the The Hague Penitentiary Institution.—LDF, GMA Integrated News