Common yarn

Common yarn | Daily Tribune

The prosecution’s presentation in the ongoing confirmation of charges hearing on the allegations of extrajudicial killings against former President Rodrigo Duterte in the conduct of his signature war on drugs has descended into propaganda rhetoric from his rabid detractors that is very familiar.

They even coined the term “common plan” which described a national network against drug dependents and traffickers that Duterte and his co-perpetrators, including Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go, oversaw.

It was supposedly an expansion of the Davao Death Squad (DDS) model, made official through Project Double Barrel, an anti-illegal drugs campaign launched in 2016.

On the second day of the ICC pre-trial hearing Tuesday, the prosecution team tried to demolish the argument of Duterte’s lead counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, that Duterte was being prosecuted due to his incendiary rhetoric construed as an intent to kill.

One of the lawyers of the victims’ families said, “Take away the Duterte rhetoric and the evidence will be more than enough to pin down the fiery ICC detainee.”

Yet during their presentation, most of the evidence was of Duterte’s rants and threats, for which he was best known.

The prosecution’s narrative on Duterte also drew heavily from confessed assassins Edgar Matobato and Arthur Lascañas, whose testimonies were deemed inconsistent and politically motivated in Senate committee reports.

The “common plan” lacked insider corroboration without the discredited duo. Duterte’s high approval ratings of over 70 percent and public support for the drug war suggested it was widely viewed as an effective crime reduction plan and not genocide.

The myth created by the prosecution overlooked the drug war’s law enforcement intent, amplified by questionable testimonies, and ignored domestic accountability mechanisms.

The ICC hearing has a backdrop of allegations of at least 76 killings between 2011 and 2019 during Duterte’s tenure as Davao City mayor and as president of the Republic.

Project Double Barrel, often mentioned in conjunction with the common plan, was an official Philippine National Police initiative aimed at reducing crime through high-impact operations such as Oplan Tokhang against low-level offenders and Oplan HVT against high-value targets. It did not sanction systematic killings as implied in the presentation of the prosecution.

Duterte’s campaign was in response to a national crisis with over three million addicts, with deaths occurring in legitimate encounters or due to rogue elements, not a “common plan.”

Official figures cited around 6,000 deaths in operations, far below human rights groups’ 30,000 estimate, which included unverified vigilante killings not linked to state policy.

The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019 and argued that it lacked jurisdiction over post-2019 acts — and that domestic courts could handle cases.

Duterte’s legal camp claims the “national network” is a fabrication, with no direct proof of a centralized kill list or chain of command beyond standard police hierarchies.

Fact checks have debunked related misinformation, including false claims about ICC dismissals for insufficient evidence.

Senate reports from 2017 to 2018, signed by 11 senators, rejected the allegations of a DDS as unsubstantiated, attributing excesses to individual abuses rather than a state plan.

The testimonies of Lascañas and Matobato were debunked as mostly fabricated by opposition figures, particularly Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, as part of a political smear campaign.

In September 2016, Matobato testified before a Senate committee investigating extrajudicial killings, claiming that he was a DDS hitman for over 25 years, involved in more than 50 murders on Duterte’s orders.

He alleged witnessing Duterte personally kill a government agent, order mosque bombings in retaliation for attacks, and direct executions of drug suspects, including feeding one to crocodiles.

Lascañas testified in October 2016 before the Senate probe to deny Matobato’s claims, asserting that the DDS was a fictional group and that he had no close ties to Duterte.

However, in February 2017, he recanted during a press conference organized by Trillanes, confessing to leading the DDS, killing nearly 200 people, including a journalist, committing mosque bombings, and receiving direct orders and payments from Duterte.

Lascañas claimed a “spiritual awakening” during dialysis as his motivation, but his flip-flop raised suspicions.

A Senate committee report in May 2017 described Lascañas’ claims as “flooded with loopholes,” noting that his recantation lacked credibility and was “weak.”