The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), through the Philippine Embassy in the Hague, on Wednesday confirmed that embassy officials visited former president Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court (ICC) detention center to conduct a “welfare check.”
“This is in line with its functions under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and relevant Philippine laws to protect the welfare of all Filipinos,” the DFA said in a statement.
“This is a duty of all Philippine Foreign Service Posts and is no different from what the DFA does for other Filipino citizens who are in detention abroad,” it added.
This development follows Vice President Sara Duterte’s statement issued earlier the same day, where she accused the said officials of clearly abusing the rules of her father’s detention unit concerning consular visits.
“If such sham ‘welfare checks’ are allowed to continue, then the ICC and the Philippine government must be prepared to answer, fully and directly, for any harm that comes to former president Duterte—including, should the worst happen, his death in custody as a direct result of these intrusions, the false pretense of conducting a ‘welfare check,'” Sara said.
“These are nothing but orders of President Marcos disguised as consular functions, and we strongly object to such visits. (Rodrigo) does not need you, our family will take care of him,” she added.
The Vice President further claimed that there are other detained Filipinos overseas “who have not had the benefit of a single ‘welfare check’ from the Philippine government.”
