With Du30 going on trial, focus shifts to Bato, et al.
Former high-ranking police officials identified as co-perpetrators in the case against ex-President Rodrigo Duterte in the International Criminal Court (ICC) may face charges aside from crimes against humanity.
Based on what was revealed during the pretrial hearing, they may also be charged over the questionable arrest of hundreds of thousands of individuals during Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, according to one of the lawyers for the victims.
In an interview on Saturday, Kristina Conti said they are expecting the Pretrial Chamber (PTC) I of the ICC to finally issue arrest warrants on the co-perpetrators, following its ruling on April 22 that confirmed the charges against Duterte and set the stage for his full-blown trial.
Conti said that aside from murder as a crime against humanity, which is the charge against Duterte, the former police officials may be charged with imprisonment or severe deprivation of physical liberty, which is also a crime against humanity tried at the ICC.
The PTC I publicly released the document containing charges from the prosecution last year, giving rise to speculation that arrest warrants were coming for the co-perpetrators. The charges against them, however, will be separate from Duterte’s case and therefore won’t be a cause of delay for his own trial, Conti said.
‘Thanks to the defense’
“I’m personally concerned with the arrests (during the drug war) … they were a lot. And thanks to the defense, they raised the number during the (confirmation of charges) hearings,” the lawyer told the Inquirer.
She was referring to the third day of the pretrial hearings held in February, when lead defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman argued that the recorded deaths in the antidrug campaign were just “a fraction” of the 118, 287 total arrests made by the police during the period from July 2016 to November 2017.
“Thank you,” Conti said, apparently addressing Kaufman. “It means there were other rights violations.”
The number of drug-related arrests rose to about 300,000 by the end of the Duterte administration in 2022, she said, citing official data.
The specific charge of imprisonment can be lodged against then Philippine National Police chief and now Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and the rest of the co-perpetrators who served in the PNP, Conti said.
Threshold
Dela Rosa was included in the charge as chief implementer of the PNP’s “Project: Double Barrel,” the campaign that targeted drug suspects at the community level as well as so-called high-value targets or big-time drug dealers.
The other co-perpetrators named by the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor are former Davao City police chiefs Vicente Danao and Isidro Lapeña; and former PNP chiefs Oscar Albayalde and Camilo Cascolan.
Also on the list were then special presidential assistant and now Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go; former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, and former National Bureau of Investigation chief Dante Gierran. Conti said the lawyers helping the victims are confident that imprisonment, as a separate charge against Dela Rosa and the others, would pass the PTC I’s threshold for being “widespread and systematic.”
Dela Rosa has been absent from the Senate sessions since November last year after Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said an ICC warrant against the lawmaker had already been issued. Remulla’s claim remained unconfirmed by other concerned officials.
Victims’ list seen to grow
Days after the ICC ruling that confirmed the charges against Duterte, the families of the drug war victims continued to express elation over the development.
Sheerah Escudero, who lost a brother to the drug war, said the families first thought they would not even see Duterte being arrested.
“It is our wish that more will be arrested. Just the thought that someone will be convicted (for the killings) is enough to give us the courage to continue fighting,” Escudero said in a press briefing on Saturday organized by support group Rise Up for Life and for Rights.
From the initial 539 individuals officially recognized as victims by the ICC, their lawyers expect the number to more than double or reach about 1,500 ahead of the trial.
Conti said her legal team sees the trial starting in October this year at the earliest or February at the latest—and may even drag on for “up to 10 years” as the opposing parties are expected to file appeals and other seek legal remedies along the way.
Lawyer Joel Butuyan, who served as the common legal representative for victims in the ICC case, gave the same projection as to the start of the trial, citing past cases that had reached this stage.
ICC spokesperson Oriane Maillet earlier said the case against Duterte will be endorsed to a three-member trial chamber that will then draw up the process for the next stage.
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