The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Saturday said subjects of Interpol red notices will not be automatically arrested in relation to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) probe into former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez said the Philippines is generally obligated to cooperate with the Interpol as a member state, but this cooperation can nonetheless be challenged in local courts.
“The court can step in and investigate if the manner of cooperation is correct and if the implementation of a warrant or a red notice is valid or not. That is a judicial process,” Vasquez said on ABS-CBN’s TeleRadyo Serbisyo.
A red notice is a request to law enforcement to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action following the issuance of a warrant or similar order from a requesting country’s court.
Hence, according to the Interpol, member-states can apply their own laws in deciding whether to arrest a person.
“That is when the question of whether the order is valid and whether the crime the subject of the notice is wanted for is a crime in the member country comes in,” Vasquez said.
“The parties involved can avail of our judicial processes,” he added.
Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla earlier said the country is duty-bound to help Interpol in case it serves an arrest warrant against Duterte and others named in the ICC probe.
“We respect Interpol’s actions 99.9 percent of the time…If a problem arises, they (ICC) will bring it to Interpol. We are members of Interpol, and we do not block any movement of Interpol unless a policy contradicts our international commitments. The future issue at hand now is that if a warrant of arrest is issued – it’s Interpol’s job to serve it, and we have a duty to Interpol,” Remulla said.
