By Beting Laygo Dolor, Editor

MANILA – He may have surrendered peacefully, but his family was still livid at how former President Rodrigo Duterte was immediately served a warrant for his arrest then detained by authorities.

For one, his partner and acting first lady during his presidency, Honeylet Avancena, said the detention of the former president was “Illegal.” 

Speaking in the vernacular, Avancena said that at least President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s father and namesake “at least officially announced the declaration of martial law.” In the case of ex-president Duterte, “no announcement was made, there was no legal assistance, there was no warrant.”

It was plain and simply a case  of illegal detention, she said.

While the former president was being arrested, she was heard calling out for Senator Bong Go, who was not allowed to enter the area where Duterte was being detained.

Their daughter Veronica “Kitty” Duterte pretty much said the same thing, saying in her Instagram page that her father’s arrest was “illegal” as there was no warrant of arrest.

She also said that authorities were blocking her father from getting “the medical attention he badly needs.”

(Note: The family doctor noted that the former president’s “glucose level shot up to 328 despite [being injected with] insulin.”)

The mother and daughter were seemingly not aware that a warrant had been issued by the International Criminal Court, but it was served by Interpol with the assistance of the Philippine National Police.  

Davao City Sebastian Duterte said in his Facebook page, “This is not the Philippine National Police serving a warrant since they cannot even justify their actions. This is a political maneuver of the Bongbong Marcos administration. Be prepared no matter what.”

He said allowing the arrest of his father had “the smell of desperation” on the part of the Marcos regime.

The Davao mayor also said, “It seems to me that they are trying to murder the old man.”

The former president is almost 80. He celebrates his birthday on March 28.

For her part, Vice President Sara Duterte – who arrived at the NAIA a couple of hours after her father – did not immediately give a statement. Her office said she would  “address any relevant matters at the appropriate time.”

An estranged niece of the former president, Nuelle Duterte, who had been warning the public of the dangers posed by her uncle’s presidency, simply said: “I lived to see it.”

She later added: “Let him go to The Hague. That’s how justice, slow as it is, works.”