Palace says Marcos won’t ask SolGen to quit post
By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter
PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. will not ask Solicitor General (SolGen) Menardo I. Guevarra to resign after he recused himself from Supreme Court lawsuits seeking to declare former President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s arrest as illegal, according to the Presidential Communications Office.
“When I asked him if SolGen would resign, he said: ‘I am not asking for his resignation.’ That’s all he said,” palace spokesperson Clarissa A. Castro told a news briefing on Thursday. “So, his trust in Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra remains.”
Supreme Court spokesperson Camille Mae L. Ting told reporters last week Mr. Guevarra had inhibited himself from representing state officials accused by Mr. Duterte’s children of having illegally enforcing his arrest and detention before he was flown to The Hague.
The country’s top lawyer earlier said he would leave it to the President to decide whether to keep him.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla told a forum on Wednesday Mr. Guevarra did not get his permission to withdraw from the lawsuits.
Mr. Duterte’s children — Sebastian, Paolo and Veronica — filed separate petitioners before the High Court seeking the firebrand leader’s release.
The tough-talking leader, who was President from 2016 to 2022, was arrested last week in Manila, marking the biggest step yet in the ICC’s probe of his alleged crimes against humanity during an anti-illegal drug crackdown that killed thousands and drew condemnation around the world.
The Hague-based tribunal has been investigating him for crimes he allegedly committed when he was Davao City mayor and during the first three years of his government, when the Philippines was still a party to ICC.
Last week, the Supreme Court rejected Mr. Duterte’s plea for an injunction on the government’s cooperation with the ICC.
Both Sebastian and Veronica said their father had been illegally arrested and was being detained by the ICC, which they said does not have jurisdiction over the Philippines.
Meanwhile at a virtual news briefing, Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio, who is in the Netherlands with her father, chided personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines for allowing the arrest to happen under “questionable circumstances.”
“Even more disturbing is the silence of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP),” she said. “Why did the AFP stand idly by when a former commander in chief was taken from a military base under questionable circumstances?”
“If a former President can be taken without due process, what stops them from doing the same to any other Filipino?” she asked.
The Vice-President, whom and House of Representatives impeached in February, said she was still performing her duties online, and that bringing her father back from home is a duty she needs to carry out.
The war on drugs was the signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial Mr. Duterte to power in 2016. During his six years in office, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations, by the police’s count.
Activists and human rights group say as many as 30,000 drug suspects died.
“I don’t want to stay here because my children are in the Philippines and my work is there,” Ms. Duterte said in mixed English and Filipino. “But as Vice-President, I also have a duty to a fellow countryman, a Filipino citizen who is being held against his will here at the ICC detention center.”
