MANILA, Philippines — After recanting his complaint for mass murder against President Duterte, lawyer Jude Sabio yesterday implicated detained Sen. Leila de Lima in what he claimed were politically motivated cases against the Chief Executive.
Sabio surfaced days after announcing he would withdraw his complaint against Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and accused De Lima of having a hand in the case, along with former senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
“When I went to the ICC, Senator De Lima was already under detention. So I had no opportunity to talk to her or coordinate with her anymore. But all this time, she was also involved in the ICC case,” Sabio said at a forum in Quezon City.
He said the communication he filed before the ICC in 2017 was “nothing else but a political propaganda” of De Lima, Trillanes and the opposition Liberal Party.
Sabio reiterated he was not paid by any party in withdrawing the ICC complaint and that he made the decision after realizing that the opposition only used him to attack Duterte.
“All of them, they cannot be trusted with the way they handled me. If you read my withdrawal from the ICC, you will find indications that these people only want to use and exploit me in their political agenda,” the lawyer said.
He said Trillanes had asked him to file the ICC communication, which relied on the accounts of confessed hitmen Edgar Matobato and Arturo Lascañas, who both accused Duterte of leading the Davao death squad when he was still mayor of Davao City.
Sabio alleged that De Lima was behind Matobato’s filing of murder and kidnapping charges before the ombudsman against the President in 2016 over the alleged killings in Davao City.
“I personally submitted that complaint before the ombudsman on orders of Senator De Lima,” he claimed.
Sabio said the opposition had also asked him to lawyer for Peter Advincula, who claimed to be “Bikoy” in the video linking Duterte to the drug trade, despite failing their vetting process.
Advincula had filed sedition charges against Vice President Leni Robredo, Trillanes and other opposition figures.
Experts stressed that Sabio’s withdrawal of the complaint would not have any effect on the preliminary examination being conducted by ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. There are at least 52 communications filed against Duterte before the international tribunal.