Filipino observers are predicting a full trial for former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte as the confirmation of charges hearing concludes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday.Human rights defenders said the prosecution capably argued Duterte must face all the 49 charges against him that represents the tens of thousands of killings he ordered while Davao City mayor and president of the Philippines.
Cristina Palabay, secretary general of rights group Karapatan, said she predicts that the ICC will confirm all the charges by April that would lead to a full trial later this year.
Palabay, who just arrived in the Philippines from The Hague to personally observe the proceedings, said she agrees with counsel for the families of the victims Neri Colmenares that the prosecution presented very strong arguments while the defense failed in deflecting blame from their client.
“Kaufman (Duterte’s lead defense counsel) sounded like a troll, like Duterte himself,” Palabay said, adding the defense unsuccessfully argued that there was no link between Duterte’s pronouncements of having ordered the killings to the actual mass violence that happened.
Duterte is suspected of three counts of crimes against humanity: 1) Murders in or around Davao City during the Mayoral period by the Davao Death Squad; 2) Murders of High-Value Targets during the Presidential period; and 3) Murders and attempted murders in barangay clearance operations during the Presidential period.
Rights organizations said Duterte’s war on drugs have killed upwards of 30,000 while the police admitted to “only” more than 6,000 victims.
‘Media’s fault’
In his closing remarks, Kaufman said the prosecution merely echoed Philippine media’s “the media reporting of this case” characterized by their “complete disregard of the evidence.”
“I would like to remind the learned representative for the victims that he is not a mini-prosecutor, and to regale the pretrial chamber with unsupported allegations that many, many children lost their lives is utterly inappropriate,” said Kaufman, referring to prosecution counsel Gilbert Andres.
Kaufman’s closing was an iteration of his opening remarks last Tuesday where he blamed the Philippine media for linking the tens of thousands of deaths to Duterte’s repeated public statements of ordering the police to “Kill, kill, kill!”
Duterte’s lawyer asked ICC’s pretrial chamber not to confirm the charges against his client unless it has strong proof for all 49 complaints.
‘Justice, truth prevailed’
Families of victims rejoiced at the conclusion of the confirmation of charges sessions on Friday, saying justice and truth prevailed in The Hague.
“Throughout the proceedings, the prosecution carefully and powerfully described the pain carried for years by the families of EJK victims. They showed the systematic and widespread nature of the killings carried out during Duterte’s drug war, and they demonstrated how Duterte’s own public pronouncements and tirades point directly to his responsibility,” Duterte Panagutin-Europe said.
The network said the prosecution clearly established that their stories were not mere statistics as Duterte’s defense team tried to portray.
“In bringing their lived realities before the ICC, both the prosecution and the Common Legal Representative of Victims (CLRV) ensured that the voices long ignored in the Philippines were finally heard on the international stage,” the group said.
Duterte Panagutin said the ICC has no choice but to confirm the charges to make Duterte face the full weight of the law.
“Even as Duterte remains detained at the Scheveningen Prison, it is worth remembering that he continues to enjoy rights and protections that he so callously denied his victims,” it added.
In Manila, the group Rise Up for Rights and for Life held another watch party of the ICC proceedings on Friday night, bringing out cakes at the end in gratitude to their lawyers.
“We are happy for the capable representation our lawyers gave at the ICC. We are a step closer to getting justice for our kin murdered by Duterte,” they said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)