Davao City Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte says the International Criminal Court (ICC) has already released a warrant of arrest against Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go. But almost everyone in government who would know says he’s wrong.

Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who first revealed the ICC arrest warrants against former President Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, flatly rejected Pulong’s claim. “Don’t believe Pulong. No ICC warrant has come out for anyone yet,” Trillanes said on Thursday.

He added: “Should a warrant indeed come out later, he definitely won’t know about it, just like when his father didn’t know that he had a warrant.”

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla was even blunter. He told reporters at Camp Crame that the Davao congressman “may have been high” when he heard about the warrant. “He may have been high (‘sabog’) when he heard that because we don't see anything like that,” Remulla said. “We’re always prepared. But those kinds of pronouncements are dangerous.”

PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. also said he had no knowledge of an ICC warrant. “Good for him if he knows. As for me, I don’t know.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) joined the chorus of denials. Spokesperson Polo Martinez said: “We haven't received any official communication from the ICC regarding the alleged issuance of a warrant of arrest against Sen. Go.” He added that the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, the agency that would first receive such an order, also denied getting any document from the ICC.

But the denials don’t necessarily mean there isn't a warrant. In May, the ICC confirmed it had issued an arrest order for Dela Rosa in November last year — but it was placed under seal, as ICC rules allow. When the order became public on May 11, Dela Rosa disappeared while under Senate protective custody. He was last seen getting into a vehicle with Sen. Robin Padilla on May 14.

Go himself has been charged by the ICC as a “co-perpetrator” in Duterte’s drug war. He served as special presidential assistant and head of the Presidential Management Staff from 2016 to 2018 before being elected senator in 2019. Before that, he was Rodrigo Duterte’s personal aide when Duterte was Davao City mayor.

Asked about the alleged warrant, Go said he'll leave it to God. “In my entire life, I've never broken any human law or God’s law,” he said. “Police matters have never been part of my mandate. I hope and pray that the supposed ICC warrant isn't politicized against me.”

Malacañang neither confirmed nor denied whether the ICC issued warrants for Go and retired police generals Oscar Albayalde and Vicente Danao Jr. The ICC says these three, along with Dela Rosa, wielded “de facto authority” over those who carried out the killings under Duterte.

Palace press officer Claire Castro, who was in Kazan, Russia with President Marcos, rejected Pulong’s claim that the ICC is being used as a political weapon by the administration. “Why do we always blame the court or blame the administration? Let's not forget that these cases were filed as early as 2017 [long before Marcos was elected President],” she said.