Palace backtracks on arrest hearings
MALACAÑANG on Monday said it would allow several high-ranking officials to attend the next hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which is investigating the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte. The announcement was a reversal of a March 31 letter in which Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, claiming executive privilege, said the Cabinet members would not attend subsequent hearings of the committee. Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro said Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon, Chief State Counsel Dennis Arvin Chan, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Rommel Marbil, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief MGen. Nicolas Torre, Executive Director Anthony Alcantara of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, and Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac would be appearing at a hearing scheduled on Thursday, April 10. "We give respect to the request of Senate President Chiz Escudero, provided, of course, that this won't touch on matters of executive privilege," Castro said at a briefing in Filipino. Escudero over the weekend said he took the initiative to act as the "bridge" between the Senate and the executive department after the mentioned officials opted to skip the committee's inquiry last week. In his letter, Bersamin pointed out that there are already four petitions filed and pending before the Supreme Court involving the arrest and turnover of Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) last March 11 for allegedly committing crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs. These petitions, Bersamin said, "are closely intertwined with the agenda items" being deliberated in the hearings at the Senate, and to comment on them before the court cases were resolved would be sub judice.
Tomas Kauer - Moderator 
MALACAÑANG on Monday said it would allow several high-ranking officials to attend the next hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which is investigating the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The announcement was a reversal of a March 31 letter in which Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, claiming executive privilege, said the Cabinet members would not attend subsequent hearings of the committee.
Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro said Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon, Chief State Counsel Dennis Arvin Chan, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Rommel Marbil, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief MGen. Nicolas Torre, Executive Director Anthony Alcantara of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, and Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac would be appearing at a hearing scheduled on Thursday, April 10.
"We give respect to the request of Senate President Chiz Escudero, provided, of course, that this won't touch on matters of executive privilege," Castro said at a briefing in Filipino.
Escudero over the weekend said he took the initiative to act as the "bridge" between the Senate and the executive department after the mentioned officials opted to skip the committee's inquiry last week.
In his letter, Bersamin pointed out that there are already four petitions filed and pending before the Supreme Court involving the arrest and turnover of Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) last March 11 for allegedly committing crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs.
These petitions, Bersamin said, "are closely intertwined with the agenda items" being deliberated in the hearings at the Senate, and to comment on them before the court cases were resolved would be sub judice.
