The Duterte siblings – Sara, Paolo, Kitty, and Baste – asked the Supreme Court to direct the government to return former President Rodrigo Duterte to the Philippines. According to them, the issues surrounding his arrest last year are not yet resolved.
In the memorandum of Rep. Paolo Duterte, it was emphasized that the detention and arrest of Duterte in The Hague are illegal and unconstitutional. He requested a writ of habeas corpus to restore his father's freedom and rescind the government's action in cooperation with the ICC and Interpol.
According to Baste Duterte, the local court did not issue an arrest warrant, so the arrest was without due process. He pointed out that the incident caused continuous damage to the constitution.
For Kitty Duterte, the SC should declare that their father's arrest is illegal and unconstitutional, and order the government to take all steps to bring him back to the country.
Despite the Philippines' withdrawal from the Rome Statute in 2019, the family insisted that local courts have the right to handle the case, and that jurisdiction should not be entrusted to a foreign tribunal.
