MANILA — Former President Rodrigo Duterte's defense team is taking shape with a veteran international defense counsel at its helm.

Last week, Vice President Sara Duterte announced that British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman will be the lead counsel, while former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea and former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque would be part of the panel's supporting lawyers.

Vice President Duterte has been serving as the family's representative and has been meeting and coordinating with the former president's defense panel.

Under the rules of the International Criminal Court, only the lead counsel is mandated to be an accredited lawyer in the international tribunal, while this requirement may be relaxed for supporting counsels.

READ: Rodrigo Duterte makes first ICC appearance

NICHOLAS KAUFMAN

Defense Lawyer Nicholas Kaufman (R) speaks with Xavier Jean Keita of the office of public council for defense on March 27, 2014 at the courtroom of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague during Charles Ble Goude's initial appearance. Michael Kooren, AFP/File

Kaufman, who has a 34-year experience in international law, earned his Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Cambridge, and also studied at the Inns of Court Law School in London.

Kaufman's notable high-profile clients include former Congo Vice President Jean Pierre Bemba and former Central African Republic (CAR) minister Maxime Mokom, who were also charged with crimes against humanity before the ICC.

Bemba — a former warlord-turned-politician in Africa — was detained in the Hague for 10 years and was convicted in 2016 after his militia committed murder and rape in CAR. While Bemba was initially sentenced to 18 years in prison, he was eventually freed in 2018 after his defense counsels won his appeal case before the ICC's Appeals Chamber.

Mokom, on the other hand, was charged before the tribunal for being an anti-balaka militia leader, whose group allegedly targeted even Muslim civilians, including women and children. In 2023, the case against Mokom did not prosper as the ICC's prosecutor eventually withdrew the charges, citing a supposed lack of evidence and witnesses.

Kaufman's experience in defending high-ranking leaders before ICC magistrates may come in handy for Duterte, said international law expert and law school dean Ralph Sarmiento.

"Experience is a very important in the conduct of the trial. If you are not accredited, meaning to say you do not have international law practice, probably your view point is domestic law practice," said Sarmiento, dean of the University of St. La Salle Bacolod's College of Law.

"If you participate in the proceedings and then you don't have experience in international criminal law and litigation, then you might be causing delays in the proceedings because you were not conversant with the rules and procedure," he told ABS-CBN News.

Maintaining an international defense counsel like Kaufman can be "very, very expensive," but the ICC can also task one of its accredited lawyers to defend Duterte should the former president no longer be able to hire his lead counsel, Sarmiento said.

"If you cannot pay for the services of your own lawyer, the court will pay for those services to ensure that you will get a proper representation," he said.

"There is a roster of parang mga accredited defenders. You will be given a chance to choose from them and it will be subject to the approval of the court," he said.

SALVADOR MEDIALDEA

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea listens as President Rodrigo  Duterte presides over a meeting with key government officials at the Malacañan Palace on February 21, 2022. King Rodriguez, Presidential Photo/File

Medialdea — Duterte's underclassman in San Beda Law — was personally picked by the former president to be part of his legal team at the Hague.

Before being appointed as Duterte's executive secretary in 2016, Medialdea worked in several law offices, where he handled various labor, litigation and immigration cases. He eventually established his own law firm, where Duterte is a client.

Even after Duterte's presidency, Medialdea has often accompanied the Davaoeño politician in various events, including the former president's recent trip to Hong Kong and his eventual arrest at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Medialdea was also with Duterte aboard the chartered flight that whisked the former president from Manila to the Hague after hours of detention at the Villamor Air Base.

The former executive secretary has framed Duterte's arrest and detention in the Hague as a form of "kidnapping" and an "extrajudicial rendition." 

READ: 'Pure and simple kidnapping,' Medialdea tells ICC on Duterte's arrest

He has asked the ICC to reschedule Duterte's first appearance before the international tribunal, but the court junked the motion, saying a postponement was unnecessary as the court only had to confirm Duterte's identity and the charges filed against him.

HARRY ROQUE

Atty. Harry Roque at the Department of Justice in Manila on September 7, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File

Before being appointed as Duterte's spokesperson, Roque worked as a lawyer specializing in public international law and human rights.

Roque gained public recognition for being the legal counsel of slain transgender Jennifer Laude, several victims of the Maguindanao Massacre, and some elderly Filipinas who have been seeking reparations from rape and abuse of Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Last year, Roque fled the Philippines after receiving multiple subpoenas from the House of Representatives, and after being charged with a qualified human trafficking case in connection with his ties to an illegal gambling operator based in Pampanga.

Roque repeatedly claimed that he had the right to travel as the Bureau of Immigration only placed him in their lookout bulletin instead of issuing a hold departure order against him.

The ICC is not expected to bar Roque from participating in Duterte's trials even if a Philippine court issues an arrest warrant against him, Sarmiento said.

READ: Palace on Duterte's first ICC appearance: This is what we call fair trial

"The fact that he may have a pending or standing warrant of arrest in the Philippines, it does not affect his capacity or his skill or yung authority niya to represent former President Rodrigo Duterte," the law school dean said.

"But there is a risk of the possibility of the Philippines government requesting for his extradition to the Philippine government because I believe we have an extradition treaty," he said.

READ: VP Sara, Harry Roque, Robin Padilla arrive at ICC for Rodrigo Duterte's case

SARA DUTERTEVice President Sara Duterte speaks to the media at the Office of The Vice President in Mandaluyong City on December 11, 2024, after skipping on the same day a National Bureau of Investigation probe on her remarks of having President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assassinated should she be killed. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

Vice President Duterte — the former President's daughter — worked briefly in the Philippine Supreme Court after passing the bar examinations in 2006. In 2007, she returned to her hometown Davao City after she was elected as vice mayor.

The younger Duterte followed her lawyer-father's footsteps, and eventually served as Davao City's Mayor. 

In 2022, she won the vice presidential race after mounting an alliance with now-President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. In mid-2024, she resigned from the Marcos Jr. Cabinet and has since been a vocal critic of the administration.

An impeachment case has been filed against her earlier this year, and its trial in the Philippine Senate is expected to begin in late July.

The Vice President earlier said that her father had instructed her to return to the Philippines as soon as possible, but she noted that she would stay in the Hague until their other relatives could secure visas and travel to the Netherlands to closely monitor the status of their detained patriarch.

Vice President Duterte clarified that she will be coordinating with her father's legal team remotely once she returns to the Philippines.

The Philippine Constitution bars her from officially engaging in private practice during her tenure as vice president.

READ: 'Flight-risk' Duterte may apply for interim release, lawyer says

WHAT'S NEXT?

Among the legal remedies that Duterte's camp can pursue is a petition for an interim release, which will allow the former president to be freed from detention while awaiting his first trial in September, Sarmiento said.

"In the ICC there is no right to bail, but you can request for a right to interim release pending proceedings," he said.

"If you can establish to the court that there is serious irregularity in the way you were arrested, then that can also be a good cause for securing an interim release pending proceedings," he said.

But the ICC "rarely" grants this kind of petition, the international law expert said.

"Normally, it only happens sa mga accomplices lang," he said.

"But in some cases when due delay in the conduct of the proceedings and there is no fault in the part of the accused, like the fault, the one causing the delay is the office of the prosecutor, then you will have a good cause to request for interim release pending appeal," he added.

The former president may also question the validity of his arrest and the jurisdiction of the ICC in his case, Sarmiento said.

In 2018, the Philippines — then under Duterte's rule — notified the ICC that it would withdraw as a signatory of the Rome Statute. Manila's withdrawal formally took effect in 2019.

While the ICC earlier ruled that it still has jurisdiction over Duterte's case as the alleged crime happened between 2011 and 2017, the former president's camp can still raise the issue anew before the international court, Sarmiento said.

"We must understand that it was actually the Philippine government which raised the issue in 2021, and eventually it was decided by the court in 2023 so it was not the camp of the accused himself or former president Rodrigo Duterte who raised that issue," he explained.

"So technically, the accused has not yet been given that opportunity to raise that issue of jurisdiction or admissibility… The former President Rodrigo Duterte can actually raise that issue again," he said.

"Ultimately, that is appealable to the Appeals Chamber of the ICC… ito yung appelate body nila that has a legal say on these issues," he said.

There are also instances where the ICC invalidates its jurisdiction on a case if the court finds that the accused's rights were violated during his or her arrest, the law dean said.

"Normally, very rare itong mangyari because before you can invalidate the jurisdiction of the ICC, the violation of human rights in attempting your arrest must be very serious in such a way that the court will not exercise jurisdiction because otherwise it will be seen or interpreted as condoning the gross violation of human rights," he said.

"For example you were abducted and then you were subjected to torture, mga inhumane treatment in your detention or in the way you were arrested, then that's a serious violation of human rights," he said.

"[If that is proven], then the court will definitely not accept or will not exercise its jurisdiction because otherwise, it will be seen as condoning those violations of human rights."

Duterte's camp has about half a year to prepare for its defense and to find ways to liberate the former president from detention.

The ICC is expected to start with the confirmation of charges against Duterte on September 23.

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