Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s lead counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, has pushed back against claims their camp to limit the number and type of identity documents the complainants in the case against Duterte could present to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In an interview on Tuesday (Hague time), Kaufman also accused human rights lawyers Joel Butuyan and Kristina Conti of spreading misinformation.

“This whole thing about judges rejecting a proposal from me never happened,” Kaufman said.

“What actually happened was that two activist victims’ representatives, Joel Butuyan and Kristina Conti, went to the press with all kinds of claims that I asked to limit victims’ participation by restricting acceptable ID documents. That’s just not true,” he said.

Kaufman clarified that their team merely submitted “observations” to the ICC’s Victims Participation and Reparations Section (VPRS), the office that helps victims take part in court proceedings and apply for reparations if a conviction is handed down.

“All we did was refer to what the Philippine Social Security System considers acceptable for verifying identity,” Kaufman said. “We didn’t make a formal request. We didn’t ask for a restriction that was rejected. That’s a big lie.”

Butuyan and Conti had earlier welcomed what they claimed was the ICC’s decision to reject Duterte’s alleged request to limit the acceptable identity documents to national IDs and passports — documents many drug war victims lack.

Conti said the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber 1 rejected any limitation on ID requirements. Butuyan, in a separate statement, questioned why Duterte’s camp was suddenly demanding IDs.

“They never asked for any ID before they decided to shoot and kill the victims in cold blood,” he said.

As counsel for some of the victims’ families, Butuyan emphasized how requiring only IDs typically held by wealthier citizens would skew justice against the poor. “This trial must not become a trial against the poor,” he said.

In its 17 April ruling, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I approved a broad list of acceptable identity documents for victims and their representatives. These include birth certificates, senior citizen and PWD cards, barangay certificates, driver’s licenses, NBI clearances, SSS and GSIS cards, passports and the national ID, among others.

The chamber noted that these documents, combined with the current admission procedures, would ensure the reliability of the identity verification process while minimizing the risk of fraud.

Not the official victim reps

Kaufman also questioned the credibility of Butuyan and Conti in the case, noting that neither had been officially recognized by the ICC as a representative of the victims.

He pointed out that the victims were currently represented by the Office of Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV), a unit in the ICC tasked with representing victims throughout the proceedings.

“What they don’t say is that they weren’t accepted — at least for now — as the victims’ official representatives,” Kaufman said.

Duterte was arrested on 11 March at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on his return from Hong Kong. He was then flown to The Hague, Netherlands, where the ICC is based.

He stands accused of murder, classified as a crime against humanity, allegedly committed in the Philippines between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019.

While the Philippine government claims around 7,000 were killed in Duterte’s drug war, local and international human rights groups estimate the death toll to be as high as 30,000.