Warrant issuance vs Duterte 'co-perpetrators' likely after September: ICC-accredited lawyer

The arrest of co-perpetrators of former President Rodrigo Duterte in the bloody drug war on an International Criminal Court 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, though their identities remain confidential as the document published on the ICC website was redacted. 

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

Lawyer Joel Butuyan, one of the Filipino counsels representing alleged extrajudicial killings victims, projected that, similar to the abrupt arrest of Duterte on 11 March, a potential ICC warrant against his co-perpetrators may just come out without prior notice.

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

Based on his forecast, the prosecution will most 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 September 23 as the prosecution is dealing with a lot of work in preparation for the confirmation of charges, because they will present evidence to really 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 against Mr. Duterte, all the proceedings there would be confidential. The arrest warrant will just definitely come out if it ever does,” 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 his charges. 

He is facing a single charge of murder for crimes against humanity over his roles 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 Digong?

The application for Duterte’s warrant was heavily redacted, but speculations suggested that Duterte’s former police chiefs, Senator Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa and retired police general Oscar Albayalde, may be next on the list. 

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

Acknowledging the possibility, Albayalde earlier claimed that he would not resist arrest if the government enforced the ICC warrant. Dela Rosa, on the other hand, openly announced plans to seek refuge or temporary protection from the Senate to delay or evade a potential arrest.

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

DDS

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 formerly comprised of non-police hitmen and Davao-based police, including De la Rosa, as former president Duterte previously claimed. 

ICC prosecutors defined DDS as a group, established by former president Duterte, responsible for killing drug suspects and criminals in Davao.

This scheme was later 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-defence against the alleged suspect, 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

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

The monetary rewards ranged from P20,000 up to a million, depending on the prominence of the target. 

The former leader had repeatedly told a congressional hearing last year, while under oath, that he encouraged police to provoke drug suspects to fight back as a pretext to kill them. 

Duterte admitted that he takes “full, legal responsibility” for the widespread summary killings and that police officers must be spared from liability.

In 2017, Arturo Lascañas, a retired police officer, confessed in a Senate probe that he headed the DDS and killed nearly 200 people and was paid millions of pesos for it. 

Lascañas claimed that DDS members were “motivated” to kill not only drug suspects and criminals but also Duterte’s enemies in politics and the media due to the reward system.