What Duterte’s warrant of arrest reveals
In a stunning turn of events, former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the Philippine National Police last Tuesday. Mr. Duterte was detained pursuant to a warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He is accused of committing crimes against humanity from 2011 when he was Davao City mayor and up to 2019 when he was our country’s president.
The inclusion of the period when Duterte was Davao City mayor/vice mayor from 2011 to 2016 means that the statements and evidence submitted by self-confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) assassins (Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascañas) have been given great credence and that they will become star witnesses during the trial. Whoever else was named as a central figure in the Davao City extrajudicial killings must be having sleepless nights.
The warrant of arrest accuses Duterte of having committed the crimes “together with his co-perpetrators.” The warrant also describes the former president as “responsible for the crime … as an indirect co-perpetrator.” The multiple use of the word co-perpetrator(s) may be a clear hint that there are other warrants of arrest—already issued or to be issued—against other co-perpetrators of Mr. Duterte. Who else will be charged as co-perpetrators? Everyone who had a hand in the tens of thousands of killings that happened all over the country during the Duterte administration must also be having sleepless nights right now.
The warrant also discloses that the ICC prosecutor initially sought to charge Mr. Duterte with three types of crimes against humanity, namely, 1. murder, 2. torture, and 3. rape. However, the pretrial chamber only sustained the charge of murder. It reasoned out that, while there’s enough evidence showing the commission of torture and rape, there was insufficient evidence to connect torture and rape as part of the “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population” and that they were committed “pursuant to state policy.”
The warrant further reveals that the pretrial chamber was convinced that the crimes against humanity were committed by Duterte based on the evidence submitted related to the killing of 19 alleged “drug pushers and thieves” in Davao City and 24 drug pushers, drug users, and thieves “at various locations in the Philippines.” Out of the almost 30,000 killings that happened in the country, 43 murders will be the representative criminal incidents that will be presented by the ICC Prosecutor to prove that the killings were widespread and systematic.
The warrant further bares that the pretrial chamber did not rely merely on the testimonies of witnesses but included as evidence of Mr. Duterte’s involvement in the crimes the following: his design, dissemination, and endorsement of the “Double Barrel” project; his official appointment of key personnel to positions that were crucial in executing the crimes; his offer of financial incentives, promotions, the promise of immunity, and acts to shield from investigation and prosecution the police officers and hit men who killed suspects; his public statements authorizing, condoning, and promoting killings, and dehumanizing alleged criminals; and publicly naming suspects some of whom were subsequently killed in police operations, among others.
Within the day that he was arrested, Mr. Duterte was swiftly made to board a chartered flight, and as of this writing, was already on its way to the Hague. One cannot help but notice that the Marcos administration may have taken a page from the Cory Aquino administration’s similarly swift action in dispatching Ferdinand Marcos Sr. when he was ousted from Malacañan Palace in 1986. Both swift actions were, undoubtedly, meant to prevent political turmoil.
After Mr. Duterte is handed over to the international court, the ICC pretrial chamber will hold confirmation of charges proceedings. This is the procedure wherein the international court will either validate the charges against Mr. Duterte or dismiss the case against him and order his release. If the pretrial chamber confirms the charges, the case will go to a three-person trial chamber that will conduct trial hearings.
While at the Hague, Mr. Duterte will be staying at the ICC detention center on the outskirts of The Hague, where five African leaders charged with ICC crimes are currently detained.
Duterte is the third Asian to be charged before the ICC after the leaders of Israel and Myanmar. Duterte is the first to be arrested, however. The victims’ families are ardently praying and hoping that Duterte will also be the first to be convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison in vindication of the loved ones they have tragically lost.
