Senator, ex-DOJ chief dispute inclusion in ICC case
Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go and former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Saturday strongly denied allegations that they were among former President Rodrigo Duterte’s “co-perpetrators” in his brutal war on drugs that killed thousands of mostly poor Filipinos.
Their ally, Sen. Robinhood Padilla said he cried and became depressed after learning that the International Criminal Court (ICC) disclosed that the court’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) named the two men, along with Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and five others as part of the “hierarchy” that led the drug war. (See related story on this page)
“I dispute these allegations which are entirely unfounded, one-sided, unfair and bear no relation to the reality of my roles and responsibilities during my service as Special Assistant to the President from June 2016 to October 2018 as well as Executive Assistant to the Mayor of Davao City from 1998 to 2016,” Go said in a statement.
The senator said that he never had “any involvement in, knowledge of, or authority over these allegations.”
By ‘laws of man, God’
Go said it was inaccurate to claim that he was chief of the Presidential Management Staff under the Duterte administration, saying that “at no point in time did that responsibility fall under mine.”
He clarified that all he did was serve in accordance with the “laws of man and the laws of God” to help fellow Filipinos, especially the poor who had nowhere to turn to but the government.
Go maintained that he had “upheld the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and dedication” for the good of his countrymen.
“I will not allow these baseless accusations to distract me from my responsibilities as a duly elected Senator of the Republic. My focus remains steadfastly on serving the Filipino people—particularly the poor and vulnerable,” Go said.
Dela Rosa, who directed Duterte’s antidrug campaign as Duterte’s first national police chief, did not issue any immediate statement. He has gone into hiding since November 2025 after Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said that the ICC had issued a warrant of arrest against him.
‘I did nothing wrong’
Aguirre, who supposedly served as legal counsel to those involved in the drug war, said in a statement that he had nothing to do with the crimes against humanity charge against Duterte in the ICC.
“I did nothing wrong,” he said.
Aguirre admitted that he acted as counsel for Duterte and other suspected members of the Davao Death Squad (DDS) in 2009.
“That’s true,” he said. “But I was just exercising my profession as a lawyer and nothing is wrong with that. I never conspired or participated in any extrajudicial killings. Besides, at that time, the Philippines was not yet a member of the ICC.”Aguirre said that he served as justice secretary from June 30, 2016, to April 5, 2018.
“I hereby reiterate that I never engaged in any EJK (extrajudicial killing) or support its implementation,” he said.
“I believe that some people are trying very hard to link me to this War on Drugs to make it appear that EJK was part of their so-called Common Plan or a national policy of the Duterte administration for their EJK accusations against PRRD to be credible,” Aguirre said.
Kian, Carlo, Kulot
“I was never part of this War on Drugs and never participated in its implementation, if ever it was true,” he said.
Aguirre said that as justice secretary, he brought the families of drug war victims Kian Delos Santos, Carlo Arnais and Kulot de Guzman—three of the many young people gunned down by the police—to Malacañang to meet with Duterte.
“After the meeting, the policemen involved in their killings were all tried and convicted by the courts,” he pointed out.
Go, Aguirre, Dela Rosa and five other men, along with Duterte, wielded “de facto authority” over the assassins who gunned down suspected drug offenders—the local police and other gunmen who were the triggermen at the bottom of the chain of command that originated from the DDS when Duterte was city mayor, according to a document made public on Saturday by the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I (PTC I).
The others identified in the document were two former Davao City police chiefs—Vicente Danao Jr. who later became the Philippine National Police counterintelligence chief and Isidro Lapeña, who became the head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Also on the list were Oscar Albayalde, former National Capital Region police chief who succeeded Dela Rosa as PNP chief; Camilo Cascolan, former finance chief of the Davao Region Police Office; Dante Gierran, former National Bureau of Investigation chief, who headed the NBI Davao region.
Offer of assistance
In a radio interview on Saturday, Padilla said he was brought to tears when he read about the ICC disclosure and wondered what would happen next and who would stand with him in the Senate.
He said, “Ako po’y naiyak dito. Ako po’y na-depress dito.”
[“I cried over this. I became depressed because of this.”]Padilla was worried about being left alone if Go and Dela Rosa, who belong in the “Duterte bloc” with him, were arrested.
The senator said he reached out to the two senators to ask what he could do and offered any assistance that they might need.
Padilla said he also asked Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano what they would do as this development would affect the minority senators.
He appealed to the government to assert the country’s sovereignty and said that it should not allow fellow Filipinos to be tried by a foreign court.
