Every procedure that takes place in the International Criminal Court is transparent and known to both the defense and the prosecution sides. This is a court that is so unlike our corrupt judicial system where presiding judges/justices are sometimes disparagingly referred to as “hoodlums in robes.”
In the Rodrigo Duterte case in the ICC named as Situation in the Republic of the Philippines, let us find out who the hoodlums are.
On July 4, the ICC website announced that the Office of the Prosecutor has submitted to the three judges of the pre-trial chamber 1 the list of evidence against Rodrigo Duterte. The open announcement is par for the course. It is a required act in the ICC.
What is also open is that the lawyers of the defense are given the same list of evidence presented. This list is no small matter. It contains the names of the various witnesses the prosecution will present before the court. The only difference is that we the public do not get to see the list and the names on the list. The reason for that is obvious – to protect the persons in the list, which may include families of extrajudicial killing victims.
Hence, the formal notice itself, signed by Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang, lists the evidence on an appended Annex A that is not shown to us. In the notice, Niang cites the particular rule of confidentiality: regulation 23bis(1) of the Regulations of the Court, the annex is filed as confidential “because it includes information about the Prosecution’s evidence, including sensitive witness information.”
Notice the term – “sensitive witness information.” It means that the lawyers of the defense, who are provided copies of the annex, cannot divulge information to the public under pain of expulsion from the case. Any breach will jeopardize the case.
Here is what we can conclude – after July 4, Nicolas Kaufman and his team of lawyers, and members of the Duterte family such as the daughter Sara, have seen this confidential document and thereby know who will testify against Rodrigo Duterte in court. They know the names.
We can safely say that the Prosecution and the Defense have held their end of the bargain to maintain confidentiality. We do not know of any of them coming to a press conference revealing confidential matters. Kaufman knows too well his limitations on breaching the rules.
But can we say the same thing of the Dutertes?
Last week, it was announced by the Davao City pliant media that the city’s Regional Trial Court Branch 10 has issued “multiple arrest warrants” against the former Davao Death Squad hitman Arturo Lascañas. The cases are for online libel, murder and attempted murder. It has been clarified, however, that these warrants are alias warrants, meaning they have been served before but were not executed because the subject was nowhere to be found.
Davao city RTC 10 judge Retrina Espe Fuentes re-issued the warrants ministerially. That means there was a motion from the prosecution. Who filed the case against Lascañas? They were said to be members of the Philippine National Police Davao City, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Immigration.
PNP Chief General Nicolas Torre III is alerted to find out who these PNP officers of Davao City are. When these warrants were filed sometime 2017, Lascañas and family had already fled the Philippines. Duterte, through his secretary of justice Vitaliano Aguirre, made an effort to capture Lascañas but to no avail as he had left earlier in April 2017. No hold departure order was issued against him.
The present warrants of Judge Fuentes signify one thing – it is an attempt of the Dutertes to preempt the ICC trial even before Lascañas could testify. The purpose is clear – they want to diminish the credibility of Lascañas by citing that he faces various court cases in Davao City. That is the most that they can do because obviously the warrants cannot be served.
Lascañas is now safe and protected in The Hague. The arrest warrants will not intimidate him at all.
Here we see a pattern likewise seen in the impeachment case against Sara Duterte – a seeming attempt to quash or stop the trial or the presentation of witnesses. In the impeachment, Sara’s multiple bank accounts can easily support the charges of plunder. In the ICC case, the Lascañas testimony is first-person and eyewitness that can easily pin down Rodrigo Duterte to a lifetime prison sentence.
The Dutertes are quick. But that appears to be because they know their vulnerabilities. They know which part of their actions were criminal in nature.
So who are the hoodlums? They are those who fear an Arturo Lascañas testimony in the ICC.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
