The potential warrants from the International Criminal Court against the eight co-perpetrators of former president Rodrigo Duterte are likely to be coursed through the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), the same process applied to the case of the ex-leader, an ICC-accredited lawyer said Monday. 

Lawyer Gilbert Andres, one of the common legal representatives for the drug war victims, made the remark amid speculations that an arrest warrant may soon be issued against the co-perpetrators after Duterte lost his case at the pre-trial level. This effectively committed him to a full trial, where it would be determined whether or not he is guilty of the alleged extrajudicial killings tied to his bloody drug war.

“In my view, it will remain the same; it will be transmitted through the Interpol since there’s a memorandum of agreement, a contract between the Office of the Prosecutor and the Interpol,” Andres said in Filipino in a radio interview. 

“We expect that in a hypothetical ICC warrant, the government will receive that. It will be executed and implemented by the executive here in the Philippines,” he added. 

ICC records showed that Duterte and his co-perpetrators executed a “common plan” to “neutralize” criminals in the Philippines, including those perceived or alleged to be associated with drug use, sale, or production. The scheme involves systematic killings, torture, murder, and other crimes.

The accused co-perpetrators are Senators Bato de la Rosa and Bong Go, former Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, and retired PNP chief Oscar Albayalde. 

Others are Vicente Danao and Isidro Lapeña, former Davao City Police chiefs; Camilo Cascolan, finance chief of the Davao Region Police Office; and Dante Gierran, Davao regional director of the National Bureau of Investigation.

De la Rosa, accused of being the chief architect of the bloody drug war, has been absent in the Senate since November last year, shortly after Ombudsman Boying Remulla alleged that an ICC warrant is already out for him.

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, according to rights groups.

Since the Philippines was no longer a state party to the Rome Statute—the tribunal’s founding treaty—as early as March 2019, the ICC warrant against Duterte was coursed through Interpol. 

Despite the withdrawal, Malacañang has since argued that the Philippines is bound to execute the warrant since the country is a member of Interpol.

Due to this, Andres strongly believed that Duterte’s co-perpetrators would be subjected to the same procedures as their former boss was apprehended and turned over to the ICC custody in The Hague, Netherlands, on 11 March last year. 

Allies and supporters of Duterte have since derided his arrest as “kidnapping”, citing the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Statute. 

However, Andres argued that, regardless, the “government has a legal basis” to surrender Duterte to the ICC, citing Section 17 of the International Humanitarian Law Act (RA 9851), which allows the extradition of suspected or accused persons in the Philippines to the appropriate international court.

Recall that the ICC launched a preliminary investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killings tied to the notorious drug war in February 2018, prompting the Philippines to withdraw from the Statute one month later. 

However, under the court's rules, a withdrawal takes effect only one year after the state concerned notifies the ICC of the filing. The window is designed to prevent a state party from immediately departing the treaty upon learning that it is under investigation for possible grave crimes.

The defense has long contested the ICC’s jurisdiction, arguing that it launched a full investigation only in September 2021, more than two years after the Philippines ceased to be a party to the Rome Statute. 

The ICC, however, asserted it still maintains jurisdiction over the killings committed prior to the withdrawal.

Earlier this week, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I confirmed all three murder charges against Duterte related to the killings of 78 individuals, including six children, allegedly suspected of drug dealings from 2013 to 2018, spanning his tenure as Davao mayor and as president.