Honasan calls on poll bets to join bid to release Duterte
MANILA, Philippines — Senatorial candidate Gringo Honasan called on candidates for the 2025 national and local elections to join their petition to release former President Rodrigo Duterte from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This came after Honasan and fellow senatorial candidate Rodante Marcoleta on Wednesday announced that a coalition of non-government organizations will be making a formal submission to the ICC regarding Duterte.
The submission will seek to request a leave for the court to address the validity of Duterte’s arrest and the “urgent need” to release and return him to the Philippines.
READ: Groups to make formal request to ICC for Duterte repatriation
“We are publicly asking all candidates, national and local, to join us here and turn this into a national issue,” Honasan said at a press conference at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman in Quezon City.
“Kahit anong pangako natin para sa mahirap, maraming programa, kapag hindi natin naayos yung sistema natin sa pagpapataw ng hustisya, walang kahulugan yan dahil ang problema natin systemic damage to institutions,” Honasan, a former senator, added.
(Whatever our promises and programs are for the poor, if we don’t fix our system of dispensing justice, it means nothing because our problem is systemic damage to institutions.)
READ: Highlights: Rodrigo Duterte’s ICC pre-trial
An initial list of organizations shared to the media showed the coalition composed of the Reform PH Party, the Democratic Party of the Philippines (DPP) and the Malayang Quezon City Party.
Honasan said the petition will be open for more signatories for an indefinite period of time, through a website and physical booths that the initial signatory groups will set up.
Honasan is running for a Senate comeback as an independent under the Reform PH Party.
Meanwhile, Marcoleta is gunning for a Senate seat under the slate of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP), the political party Duterte chairs.
Duterte was arrested by authorities on March 11 and brought to face the ICC for alleged crimes against humanity said to have been committed during his administration’s war on drugs.
At least 6,000 people were killed by Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign, according to official government data.
However, human rights watchdogs place the death toll between 12,000 and 30,000 people.
