Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said yesterday that “three or four” witnesses are now under government protection and he expects more to testify against former President Rodrigo Duterte after an ICC request that those testifying for the prosecution in the crimes against humanity case be shielded from reprisal.
“We will protect the witnesses, whatever it takes to protect the witnesses, we will do because the prosecution will rely on the witnesses to prove their case,” he told reporters.
However, the justice secretary noted that the government can only protect witnesses while they remain on Philippine soil.
“Of course, when they get to The Hague [we can no longer protect them]. But while they are here, we exhaust our obligation to them. If we can protect witnesses for other cases, why not in this case,” he explained in a mixture of Filipino and English.
Still, Remulla clarified that the unnamed witnesses have yet to be officially included in the witness protection program where the national government shoulders their expenses, but hinted on this possibility sometime in the future.
“So long as there is coordination if there’s a problem, we bridge the gaps.
[Just] to make sure that the witesses are fine and they’re functioning properly. At least, the threats on their lives are [now] lessened,” he added.
Remulla also pointed out that safeguarding ICC witnesses does not necessarily signal a reversal in the Philippines’ position of remaining a non-ICC member.
“The government has to protect the people. Whether they are witnesses for the ICC or the general populace, we try to protect the people,” the DOJ chief said
As this developed, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) urged journalists covering Vice President Sara Duterte and her family to uphold high standards of accuracy in their reporting.
The appeal was made after a major daily published a news article in connection with the former president’s petition for interim release, titled, “Sara: Why would drug war victims’ families object?”
The OVP called out the newspaper’s editorial and reportorial teams, saying “the headline and lead paragraph of the story are false, malicious and inaccurate.”
“The article falsely claimed that Vice President Sara Duterte cannot understand why the families of the victims of the drug war oppose the petition of her father for interim release from the International Criminal Court (ICC),” the office stated.
