MANILA — Former President Rodrigo Duterte dug his own grave when he declared, during his presidency, his policy to kill drug criminals.

This is the view of Attorney Joel Butuyan, one of the five Filipino accredited lawyers with the International Criminal Court (ICC), and President of CenterLaw.

In a press conference organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) on Monday, Butuyan said Duterte himself provided the “overwhelming evidence” that could lead to his conviction.

“The biggest, the strongest, the most important witness of the prosecution is the accused, Mr. Duterte himself,” Butuyan remarked.

“The application for warrant made by the ICC prosecutor shows that the evidence gathered and relied upon by the prosecutor is replete with many videos of the many declarations of Mr. Duterte where he encouraged police officers to kill drug suspects, he promised rewards and promotion, he encouraged even parents to kill their own kids, and for the public to kill drug suspects,” he explained.  

Butuyan said Duterte’s case will “go down in history as the international criminal case where the accused himself facilitated his own conviction.”  

Duterte was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on March 11 immediately after arriving from Hong Kong, and was flown to the Hague, the Netherlands before the day ended.

He is facing charges of crimes against humanity for various killings in the Philippines during his term as mayor of Davao City and President of the country.

But he is not the only person who may face the ICC. According to Butuyan, there are nine more co-perpetrators whose identities were retracted in the warrant of arrest for Duterte.

“We await the names of nine more people who have been identified as co-perpetrators of Mr. Duterte and who will potentially be issued warrants of arrest. These nine are described anonymously as co-perpetrators of Mr. Duterte in the ICC Prosecutor’s application of warrant of arrest for Mr. Duterte,” Butuyan said.

He said it is difficult to know when the warrant for the nine others will be issued considering the highly confidential matter.

In the event that Duterte dies during the course of the ICC criminal procedure, Butuyan said the trial for the co-perpetrators will still continue.

TWO TRIALS

Butuyan cautioned ICC judges from allowing the Duterte team to turn the criminal procedure into a political circus.

“The team of Mr. Duterte will try to turn this case into two virtual trials—first, to legally defend him before the ICC, and second, to illegally foment political unrest in the Philippines by falsely portraying him as a victim of injustice,” Butuyan said.  

“In the second virtual trial, the Duterte camp will do everything to milk this case of its political trial. The ICC judges should be wary of bending backwards by allowing the lawyers of Mr. Duterte to turn the trial into a political circus. The ICC judges should not allow the Duterte team to make manifestations or motions which amount to grandstanding, political campaign and that manipulate the emotions of Duterte supporters,” he added.  

According to Butuyan, the political drama narrative is being pushed by fake news and an army of trolls. But he believes this could backfire on the appeal for interim release of Duterte’s camp as previously predicted by ICC Assistant to Counsel Attorney Kristina Conti.

“I agree that it is going to affect the judges especially on the issue of interim release because makikita ng mga judges na sobrang powerful talaga yung forces ng Duterte camp dahil hanggang sa ICC ay puwede silang i-bully at i-harass and i-attempt na i-manipulate. So that is going to be a factor, of course,” Butuyan said.

He also dismissed possible concerns that may arise from the inclusion of British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman to Duterte’s legal team. Kaufman is lead counsel.

Butuyan said, “You can be the best and the brightest defense lawyer in the world but with a client who provided the ammunition to the prosecution like in this particular case, I dont know how you can actually obtain an acquittal. So I am really confident that the evidence of the prosecution is airtight and that we are going to obtain a conviction whoever is going to be the defense counsel.”

The Duterte camp has been questioning the former president's arrest.

Duterte’s defense attorney and former Palace executive secretary Salvador Medialdea earlier said the former leader was too ill to say more, that Duterte's arrest and transfer to the Netherlands was "pure and simple kidnapping” and that his client was suffering from "debilitating" medical issues.

Duterte assembles defense team with international law expert as lead counsel

Duterte's daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, has also called her father's arrest as "state kidnapping".

VP Sara Duterte calls ex-Pres. Rodrigo Duterte's arrest 'state kidnapping'