MANILA, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Senator Imee Marcos on Thursday lamented the arrest and handing over of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC), wondering if the "Philippines has become a province of The Hague."
"Since when did the Philippines become (a) province of The Hague?" asked Marcos in her opening statement during a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing, referring to the city in the Netherlands.
Marcos, the committee chair, lamented that the 79-year-old former president was made to answer to a foreign court.
"Here we are watching as a fellow Filipino, a leader, a father, and a grandfather, a man who served this country, is taken not by his own people but by outsiders who claim to have the right to judge him," Marcos added.
Marcos, an elder sister of Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, said the law should prevail: "But whose law? Ours or theirs?"
She added Filipinos are not "slaves" to foreigners and that the country should not surrender its citizens to the jurisdiction of foreigners.
On March 11, the International Criminal Police Organization arrested Duterte over a warrant issued by the ICC for crimes against humanity related to his controversial "war on drugs" campaign.
Duterte is the first former Asian leader to be detained and face trial before the ICC. ■
