(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s administration has failed in its primary duty to protect its citizens after it "willfully submitted to the demands" of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to put former president Rodrigo Duterte on trial for the alleged extrajudicial killings in his war against illegal drugs, a political analyst said Wednesday.

Dr. Froilan Calilung, who teaches political science at the University of Santo Tomas, said that Duterte, like any Filipino citizen, was entitled to due process of the law.

"Well, basically, I really believe that proper legal procedures were not followed. Things happened too quickly, and I think the statement that was made by the President runs counter to our internal sovereignty because we were not able to protect a citizen of the country," Calilung told The Manila Times in a phone interview.

"And we just willfully submitted to the demands of an international body. So, I believe that we have, and we should have made a stand. Yes, I think that we could have done something, but we chose not to do it," he added.

Due process followed

During a late press conference in Malacañang on Tuesday, Marcos insisted that law enforcement officials adhered to due process in carrying out the operation.

Marcos said that the Philippines has to comply with its commitments to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) regarding the arrest of Duterte. Otherwise, he said that the government risked not getting any help in the future from the organization.

"Mr. Duterte was arrested in compliance with our commitments to Interpol, hours before his arrival Interpol Manila received an official copy of the ICC warrant. This prompted the prosecutor-general of the Department of Justice to serve the warrant," Marcos said.

"We followed all the legal procedures that are necessary. So, I'm confident that, upon further examination, you will find that it was proper and correct," he added.

On Tuesday evening, Duterte departed for The Hague, where he is set to face charges of crimes against humanity related to his administration's controversial war on drugs.

Calilung said the Philippine government "could legally refuse to surrender" Duterte to the ICC "because without a binding treaty or domestic legal implication or obligation explicitly compelling surrender post-withdrawal, the decision to cooperate remains discretionary under Philippine law."

"The thing is we chose to take the path that coincides with our desire to satisfy the international community and unmindful of the repercussions that this will do domestically, especially within the purview of the advancement of the right of a citizen, not a former president, not a former public official but of a citizen of the country like the Philippines that we were not able to uphold," Calilung said.

"Isn't it ironic that the charges that were being filed against him redound to human rights violations, but we are also committing the same level or the same offense against him because we were not able to advance or provide him his human rights as well, especially during the point of arrest," he added.

Marcos 'liability'

Asked about the possible liability on the part of the Marcos administration, Calilung said, "I believe there is, presumably because we need to protect our own."

"We have not been able to protect our own countrymen, we have allowed him to be arrested here in our country without even going through the proper process. Because an arrest is necessary, he still has to satisfy the process. There should be no case of illegal detention," he said.

Calilung said that the supposed red notice issued by Interpol required "a legal document coming from a competent judicial authority in the country before they can enforce it."

Otherwise, he said that it would "set a bad precedent" that whoever Interpol wanted to arrest here, they will just take them without appropriate legal processes.

"So that's not the right answer, and that's not what we are expecting from the President because we have what we called internal sovereignty. We are sovereign in the country. We have well-functioning institutions. I would like to believe that these kinds of processes should be done within the confines of our territory," Calilung said.

"Otherwise, it's like you're saying that we can be dictated to by anyone, even if they're in another country, and they'll tell us we need it, will we just follow through? Of course, we need to set the proper standards and the right procedures before we submit to them. What happened was like submission to their will at the expense of the rights of our own countrymen," he added.

Calilung believed that politics was also behind the government's decision to arrest Duterte.

"Of course, at the end of the day, the reason for this is politics. We didn't look at the legal basis but only at the political percussion, and I think this is what our countrymen are seeing today as to why they are angry about what's happening today," he said.

The analyst also did not discount the possibility that Marcos could be charged with culpable violation of the Constitution for his failure to protect citizens.

He cited Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution, which states that "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws."

"In this case, it was not followed. Definitely, there is a culpable violation of the Constitution but at the end of the day, our question is can President Marcos be impeached? I don't think so because the majority of the members of the lower house who are supposed to be duly bound to file an impeachment process against him, if possible, will not do that," Calilung said.

"Majority of the people in the lower house are controlled by House Speaker Romualdez, President Marcos' cousin, who, of course, will not do that. No one will endorse. If there are a few congressmen who will endorse it, their number is not enough to really have an endorsement in the Senate," he added.

Legal remedies

Asked about the possible legal remedies that the Duterte camp can avail, Calilung said "it will depend on the swiftness of the Supreme Court, especially in the issuance of restraining orders."

He said that Duterte could request for a "provisional release" from the ICC under the Rome Statute.

"It's similar to bail. It's possible in exceptional circumstances, especially if the judges determined that there is no risk of flight, meaning he won't flee, there's no obstruction there in the dispensation of his case or continued crime exists," Calilung said.

"It's again part of the Roman Statute. But because of that, he will be detained at the ICC detention center in The Hague. It's pending the trial. The trial will take place at the ICC headquarters in The Hague. So if we can't actually stop it here domestically, his trial will continue," he added.