The arrest of the co-accused of former President Rodrigo Duterte in the bloody drug war on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant is unlikely to happen before the confirmation of charges in late September, an ICC-accredited lawyer said Monday.

A review of the prosecution’s application for Duterte’s warrant revealed that nine individuals were tagged as his co-perpetrators, although their identities remain confidential as the document published on the ICC website was redacted.

The drug war network, as alleged in the application, comprised law enforcement groups, including members of the Philippine National Police, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and National Bureau of Investigation. It includes non-police assets and hitmen.

Lawyer Joel Butuyan, one of the Filipino counsels representing extrajudicial killing victims, projected that, like the abrupt service of the warrant on Duterte on 11 March, an ICC warrant for his co-perpetrators may come out without prior notice.

Not anytime soon

He, however, expressed doubt these would be issued anytime soon, citing the volume of evidence the prosecution is currently working on as the pre-trial approaches.

He estimated the prosecution will likely apply for the warrants after the confirmation of charges against Duterte, set for 23 to 26 September, concludes.

“[It] probably won’t happen before 23 September as the prosecution is dealing with a lot of work in preparation for the confirmation of charges, because they will present evidence to convince the ICC that there needs to be a trial in Mr. Duterte’s case,” Butuyan said in Filipino.

“Whether or when the case against these nine or some of them will actually move forward, just like what happened with the investigation of Mr. Duterte, all the proceedings would be confidential. The arrest warrants will just definitely come out,” he added.

Duterte has spent the past five months at the Scheveningen Prison in The Hague, Netherlands, since his arrest in March in Manila, and will remain there while awaiting the confirmation of the charge against him.

He is facing a single charge of murder for crimes against humanity over his role as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in the anti-drug campaign he waged from 1 November 2011 to 16 March 2019 as Davao City mayor and later as president.

Who will join Duterte?

The application for Duterte’s warrant was heavily redacted, but speculations are the police chiefs under Duterte, Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and retired police general Oscar Albayalde, may be next to be charged.

Dela Rosa was the PNP chief from 2016 to mid-2018 and was succeeded by Albayalde, who allegedly continued the brutal war on drugs that saw thousands killed, mostly from poor communities.

Acknowledging the possibility, Albayalde earlier said he would not resist arrest if the government enforced the ICC warrant. Dela Rosa, on the other hand, announced his plan to seek refuge in the Senate.

ICC prosecutors identified Dela Rosa as the architect of “Oplan Tokhang,” which was allegedly carried out as early as 2012, following his promotion ton Davao City police chief under then Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

De la Rosa’s predecessor, Vicente Danao, was also named in the prosecutors’ warrant application as well as the Davao Death Squad (DDS) — a notorious group comprised of non-police hitmen and Davao-based police, including Dela Rosa, as claimed by former President Duterte.

ICC prosecutors described the DDS as a group established by former president Duterte that was responsible for killing drug suspects and criminals in Davao City.

This scheme was expanded nationwide when Duterte won the presidency in 2016.

“To facilitate these killings, the perpetrators committed other crimes, such as rape and torture, to force targets to ‘confess’ to their alleged criminality. Some killings were staged to appear as though the police had to use lethal force in self-defense, to cover up the criminal nature of the killings,” the application dated 13 March read.

“Some operations, which were conducted in a broad and violent fashion, targeted not only the alleged criminals, but also family members and other individuals who happened to be in the vicinity and were killed in the attack.”

‘Rewards’ for killings

In a House probe last year, Duterte’s alleged trusted aide, retired police colonel Royina Garma, told lawmakers the former president ordered the creation of a national task force that would mimic the so-called “Davao model,” a system that rewarded police with up to P1 million for killings.