The International Criminal Court (ICC) calls the game-changing document it publicly released only last week as a DCC – Document Containing the Charges. In it, eight were named as co-perpetrators of the accused prisoner Rodrigo Duterte, “co-perpetrator” being defined by the ICC as those who “controlled a structure of power—the local police and related Davao Death Squad hierarchy – that enabled them to control the will of the physical perpetrators.”
There was a “Common Plan” – “to ‘neutralise’ alleged criminals in the Philippines (including those perceived or alleged to be associated with drug use, sale or production) through violent crimes including murder.” This was when Duterte was mayor of Davao City. When he became president in 2016, the Common Plan was to expand it nationwide, “to ‘neutralise’ alleged criminals through violent crimes including murder across the Philippines.”
An essential ingredient then was to appoint his Davao City perpetrators to national positions. Among them was the DDS lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre II who Duterte appointed as Secretary of Justice.
It is very clear from the DCC that the tribunal’s Pre-Trial Chamber 1 was guided by knowledge of the DDS hierarchy and operations from the testimony of the DDS team leader Arturo Lascañas. Vera Files has uploaded on the web a full transcript of the Lascañas Affidavit. There were other testimonies as well from former assassins themselves who have turned witnesses against Duterte.
And that is where Vitaliano Aguirre must now lie comfortably.
Sometime in 2009, there was a nervous anticipation of the arrival in Davao City of Commission on Human Rights chairperson Leila de Lima. What was the reason for the nervous anticipation? De Lima and her CHR team were to investigate the Davao Death Squad.
The perpetrators were frantic. A meeting was called at the residence of Duterte in Central Park subdivision in Ulas. First of all, they ordered the burning of dead bodies at the Laud Quarry mass grave. That entailed exhumation operations and funds for it. Duterte approved.
Duterte had also feared that the CHR would show a search warrant to do a reconnaissance of the killing field. Indeed, the CHR team would eventually uncover human skeletal remains in Laud quarry. A lawyer was needed to foil additional searches. Lascañas narrates in his affidavit:
Sonny (Buenaventura) instructed me to standby at the vicinity of Marco Polo Hotel, and I did. After several hours of waiting, fronting the Ateneo de Davao University, the pick-up vehicle of Sonny arrived to fetch me, and I boarded the back passenger seat, and inside were SPO4 Ben Laud and Attorney Vitaliano Aguirre seated at the front passenger seat.
To my recollection, Atty. Aguirre advised us not to use Laud Quarry at that time because there might be a second search warrant for Laud Quarry.
Atty. Aguirre asked SPO4 Ben Laud if there are still dead bodies in Laud Quarry and SPO4 Laud answered in the affirmative. Atty. Aguirre then advised us to remedy the situation and we answered that we will conduct an exhumation operation anytime in Laud Quarry.
Atty. Aguirre further counseled that those alleged human bones during the CHR’s first search were from dead Japanese soldiers during World War II . . . “
In short, Aguirre’s business in Davao City was criminal – to do an obstruction of justice for the Davao Death Squad. That Duterte would later appoint him with the pivotal Secretary of Justice position tells us how his advice to lie to CHR was fundamental in hiding the truth about the Davao Death Squad’s existence. His co-perpetrator role was needed on the national stage.
And deliver he did to Duterte, his law school classmate and fraternity brother. As secretary of Justice, he announced that “The criminals, the drug lords, drug pushers, they are not humanity. They are not humanity.”
Today he says he never supported its implementation. He also says he was misquoted. That is the same as passing blame to journalists who recorded his every word.
In February 2017, Aguirre ordered his Department of Justice prosecutors to consolidate all three cases filed against then Senator Leila de Lima in only one trial court, preferably under the same judge who issued the warrant of arrest against De Lima. Of course we now know that the De Lima case was Duterte’s vendetta against her for exposing the DDS in 2009. Aguirre was a point person in exacting revenge for and on behalf of Duterte.
On November 2017, Aguirre cleared Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon over the smuggling of P6.4 billion shabu shipment that witnesses had testified as belonging to a Davao Group.
In March 2018, Aguirre also cleared suspected drug lords Peter Lim, Peter Co, Max Miro, Ruel Malindangan, Jun Pepito, and Lovely Adam Impal for various drug offenses. It appeared to many that Aguirre was a protector of Duterte’s drug trade interests.
Today, Aguirre comfortably claims: I was never part of this war on drugs and never participated in its implementation.
See you in Den Haag for your expensive defense, Mr. Aguirre.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
