Legal Scholar Says PRRD Arrest Raises Constitutional Questions

In the recent Senate hearing on the “arrest and exile” of Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, an unknown legal scholar, Alexis F. Medina, raised the issue of the violation of the former President’s Constitutional Rights.
Medina, while virtually unknown, turned out to be a Constitutional Law expert who serves as “Special Lecturer in Constitutional Law at Polytechnic University of the Phillipines” and “Special Lecturer in Constitutional Law at San Sebastian College – Recoletos, Manila College of Law.”
The Former President was arrested upon his return from Honngkong on March 11, 2025 by a Philippine National Police contingent which claimed that it was serving a Warrant of Arrest issued by the International Criminal Court.
Following the national outrage which followed the arrest, Senator Imee Marcos, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Philippine Senate conducted an Inquiry and invited lawyer Alexis F. Medina as one of the resource persons.
Here is the statement of Atty. Alexis F. Medina following the Senate hearing which he posted in his Facebook page:
“The right to liberty occupies an exalted and sacrosanct status in the hierarchy of rights in every democracy.
In the Philippines, the dispossession of physical freedom must be subjected to the heightened scrutiny of a court of law. When the right to liberty is at stake, the intervening wisdom of a Philippine court of law is imperative – from the issuance of a warrant to the final decision to condemn an individual to detention, imprisonment, or exile. This is the guarantee of due process under the Constitution.”
The recent arrest of the former president raises several critical constitutional concerns – due process, warrantless arrests, and liberty of abode, among others. This opinion hopes to address these issues.”
These Constitutional issues could be some of the reasons why Former President Duterte’s lead Legal Counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, expressed confidence that PRRD would regain his freedom.
#KnowledgeOfLawIsPower!