A complex legal shuffle is going on in The Hague currently, where the former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte is being held at the International Criminal Court Detention Unit. Duterte faces potential charges related to a campaign against drugs sellers buyers and users in which at least 7,000 Filipinos were killed.
Why is it complex? Well, any ICC case is long and complicated,. But in this case we also have his lawyers arguing the 80-year old president is unfit to stand trial, plus the Philippines has withdrawn from the court, plus the charges are for a specific limited time period, plus Duterte’s daughter is the vice president of the Philippines, plus there’s a family feud in the top echelons of power.
So, this is a situation ripe for rumour and manipulation.
What do we know? We know that in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte, who had previously been the long-time mayor of Davao City, was elected President of The Philippines. He had campaigned on being tough on drugs. By the end of his presidential term, the Philippine government officially acknowledged only 6,248 deaths linked to the drug campaign. Some human rights groups have said it was significantly higher.
We know now (we didn’t when making the podcast) what charges exactly the ICC would like to bring against Duterte. There’s a document containing the charges and a pre-trial brief. Both are full of redactions.
There are three counts of murder as a crime against humanity. The first count laid against him concerns the killings of 19 people in Davao City between 2013 and 2016 while Duterte was mayor there.
The other two charges are from when he was serving as president of the Philippines, and the murders of 14 “high-value targets” across the country, and the murder of over 40 people in village clearance operations. Duterte and his alleged co-perpetrators “shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralise’ alleged criminals in the Philippines (including those perceived or alleged to be associated with drug use, sale or production) through violent crimes including murder”, say the prosecutors.
And in documents released on September 11 we could see for the first time what health issues the defence are claiming: cognitive decline, which they say is messing with memory and executive functions and even orientation of where he is and with whom and they say it limits his critical thinking to the point where he cannot meaningful participate in his own defence
Meanwhile there’s a lot of mis and disinformation online. Plus some very heavy trolling. The personal social media accounts of ICC Judge Iulia Motoc, the Presiding Judge of the Pre-Trial Chamber that issued the arrest warrant against Duterte, were targeted by threats. NGO’s are worried that victims are being affected and they have already heard the people are already considering withdrawing from submitting more evidence to the case and submitting representations to the ICC because of their fear. Can the court cope? That’s what we discussed with Benjie Aquino of the NGO Redress.
Benjie suggested that we read the Redress Q&A on the Duterte ICC Case: Combating Disinformation and Promoting Victims’ Access to Information – also in local languages. While to relax he likes musicals and recently saw Hadestown.
This podcast has been produced as part of a partnership with JusticeInfo.net, an independent website in French and English covering justice initiatives in countries dealing with serious violence. It is a media outlet of Fondation Hirondelle, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
