Palace spox: Duterte lawyer ‘twisting facts’
A master at “twisting facts.”
This was how Palace press officer Claire Castro on Saturday called Nicholas Kaufman, Rodrigo Duterte’s lawyer, for informing the International Criminal Court (ICC) about her remark on the former president’s bid for temporary liberty even if Malacañang is not a party to the murder case.
“Attorney Kaufman appears to have mastered the art of twisting some facts,” Castro said in a statement sent to reporters.
“Again with emphasis, we want to be clear that the Marcos Jr. administration is not privy and has no hand to the former President Duterte’s ongoing trial before the ICC, particularly his request for interim release,” she added.
Latest filing
Castro also said the Philippine government could only observe developments in the crimes against humanity case against Duterte as well the defense lawyers’ pleadings to the court.
“As part of the legal process, no matter what the ICC decides, we will still respect it,” she said.
Castro was reacting to the Duterte camp’s Sept. 26 filing, where a statement she made on Sept. 24 during a press conference was relayed to the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) I.
“Her constant travels have borne fruit. So, if this is good news for them and whatever the decision of the International Criminal Court, the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will accept it,” she had said in Filipino at that briefing.
Not new
The defense claimed that this means that the Philippine government has “now contemplated without objection” the request for Duterte’s interim release to a still-undisclosed country despite the latter facilitating his arrest and eventual surrender to the ICC on March 12.
The only parties to the case that the chamber invites for comments, responses and observations with regards to the pleadings are the prosecution, defense and the victims.
Castro said this distortion of facts is not new to Kaufman.
“He had done this action before when he asserted that the ICC prosecutor had no objection with former President Duterte’s request for an interim release. However, after the ICC prosecutor filed an opposition, it was revealed to be false allegations,” she said.
‘Grave concerns’
The PTC I has yet to decide on the request of Duterte to be granted temporary liberty, along with the defense’s other pleadings before the chamber, namely its bid to disqualify Prosecutor Karim Khan from the case and its challenge on the jurisdiction of the ICC.
This was not the first time that Castro bickered with Kaufman. In July, the Palace undersecretary told him to “do better” at his job in response to Duterte’s camp plan to submit to the ICC a Senate report by the foreign relations committee to assert the illegality of the former president’s arrest in March.
Kaufman retorted, saying that Castro should not interfere with his job and that she has an “unhealthy obsession” with him.
Also on Saturday, Vice President Sara Duterte aired “grave concerns” about the situation of her father while in the ICC’s custody. She called on the tribunal to consider the “inhumane” conditions faced by her father that she referred to as “cruelty.”
“Even the most basic care for the complaint of an ingrown toenail–easily treatable–cannot be done swiftly,” she said in a statement, while claiming that the ICC “has persistently ignored the clear need for a 24-hour bedside caregiver.”
‘Abuse of power’
She also recalled the welfare check conducted by the Philippine government last week to the detained former president, saying that such an admission by the administration only “confirms” that the ICC had allowed state agents “to intrude upon him and exploit his frail and compromised health.”
“This is nothing less than an abuse of power against a vulnerable individual,” the Vice President said. —WITH A REPORT FROM DEMPSEY REYES
