“This issue has been hanging for many years and I may already die,” the 79-year-old said. “If I’m found guilty, I can go to prison and rot there for all time.”
Duterte, however, said later that he would physically kick any ICC investigator who would face him.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, the most senior Cabinet member, said if Duterte “desires to surrender himself to the jurisdiction of the ICC, the government will neither object to it nor move to block the fulfillment of his desire.”
“But if the ICC refers the process to Interpol, which may then transmit a red notice to the Philippine authorities, the government will feel obliged to consider the red notice as a request to be honored,” Bersamin said. “In which case, the domestic law enforcement agencies shall be bound to accord full cooperation to the Interpol pursuant to established protocols.”
A red notice flags law enforcement worldwide to locate and temporarily arrest a person pending extradition or surrender.
