 |
| Videos shown by prosecutors to support case against Duterte |
Videos showing detained former Philippine President
Rodrigo Duterte declaring he wanted drug lords and other criminals killed were
played at the International Criminal Court, as prosecutors argued why he should
be put on trial for the three charges of crimes against humanity filed against
him.
Duterte waived his right to attend the pre-trial
hearings, telling the judges in a letter that he did not recognize the court’s
jurisdiction and that he is “old, tired and frail.” He also applied to skip the
annual hearing on his detention set for Friday.
The former strongman
who ruled the Philippines from 2016 to 2022 faces three counts of crimes
against humanity for murder and attempted murder, covering 49 incidents and at
least 76 victims during his tenure as Davao City mayor and later as president.
 |
| Nicholls (with glasses) presents evidence against Duterte |
After the prosecution, the defense and the victims’
lawyers made their opening statements, Senior Trial Lawyer Julian Nicholls
detailed evidence which he said established that Duterte founded the Davao
Death Squad (DDS) and used this so-called Davao model to carry out killings
during his term as president.
Nicholls said the model uses a chain of command with
Duterte on top and extends to co-perpetrators, DDS handlers, and down to a
number of members of carried out the killings.
“Mr. Duterte created
liquidation squads, death squads made up of both Davao City police officers as
well as non-police officers who essentially hired hitmen and hired
killers," Nicholls said.
This, he argued, was contrary to what lead defence
counsel Nicholas Kaufman had claimed in his opening statement that Duterte was
bent on using hyperbole in his statements, and that he only declared a war on
crime in a legal way.
"The
Davao Model was murder, not being tough on crime legally as my friend
(Kaufman) said," Nicholls added.
To
establish the prosecution’s case, Nicholls referred to a number of witness
statements from self-proclaimed DDS members as well as a number of videos
showing Duterte admitting the existence of the group, and repeatedly saying he
did not only order the killings but even did some of it himself.
One
of the videos showed Duterte saying in an ambush interview in December 2015
that a human rights group was wrong in saying he had killed 700 people in Davao
City when he was mayor. Duterte said the group had undercounted because the
actual number was 1,700.
"Not only did Mr.
Duterte clearly intend his criminality, he openly bragged about it. Right up
until his arrest, he bragged about it. He thrives on a tough guy persona or
image that he's tried to create for himself," Nicholls said.
 |
| The ICC judges presiding over the confirmation hearing |
In November 2015,
while campaigning for the presidency, he told a press conference that he would
cite Davao as “exhibit A” if asked for his credentials. He then added, “Either
I get what I want, or you perish. Let’s be straightforward. What does that
mean? That means killings.”
Four other clips from
Duterte’s presidential campaign also showed him vowing to get criminals killed.
In one of them, he said in his weekly talk show that if elected president he
would kill anyone who makes the lives of Filipinos miserable.
Among the witness
statements he presented was one executed by a former DDS member who said the
group was formed in 1988 during a dinner meeting in Davao City where Duterte
was present.
“He openly told new
members of the death squad he was forming that their job was to kill criminals,”
Nicholls said.
Another witness said Duterte
never mentioned self-defence as a ground for shooting suspected criminals, and
even personally armed new DDS members with handguns and ammunitions which were
in a basket that was passed around during the party.
The prosecution also presented a slide
showing five individuals named in the charge sheet as Duterte’s co-perpetrators
in his bloody anti-crime drive in Davao City, including incumbent Senators Ronald
"Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go.
The others were identified as former
Davao City police chief Vicente Danao, former National Bureau of Investigation
chief in Davao Dante Gierran, and former Secretar of Justice Vitaliano Aguirre
II.
Kaufman, as lead counsel for Duterte,
said in his opening statement that the tough-talking leader was fond of using
hyperbole and had exaggerated his public promises of killings to scare
criminals.
He accused the prosecution of “cherry
picking” speeches to show Duterte in a bad light, and ignored his more
temperate pronouncements.
Kaufman echoed claims from Duterte
supporters that the charges against the former leader were politically motivated,
and even went as far as directly accusing President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr of
engineering his predecessor’s arrest.
The president said through his
spokesperson that the arrest was lawful, and that the complaint with the ICC was
filed in 2017 when Duterte was still president.
The hearings will continue until Feb
27, and a decision is expected within two months. If the charges are confirmed,
the case will proceed to trial which, judging from previous ICC cases, would
not likely start until after five years.
