Victim's counsel flips Kaufman's script citing Supreme Court on 'state-sponsored killings'
MANILA, Philippines — Lawyers for victims in the case against former President Rodrigo Duterte told International Criminal Court judges that a Supreme Court ruling cited by the defense could support an interpretation of possible "state-sponsored killings."
During the confirmation of charges hearing on Friday, February 27, Duterte's lead counsel Nicholas Kaufman argued that the prosecution had overstated the significance of drug war deaths, saying about 3,000 killings were a fraction of more than 100,000 arrests made during the campaign.
Gilbert Andres, common legal representative for victims, responded that he and fellow counsel Joel Butuyan were familiar with the Supreme Court case cited by Kaufman.
"I and Atty. Butuyan are familiar with these petitions referred to the defense, because we were actually the petitioners’ counsel and those petitions and we actually argued before the Philippine Supreme Court last 2017 on this issue," Andres told the chamber.
Supreme Court ruling cited
Andres quoted from Supreme Court Resolution G.R. No. 234359 and G.R. No. 234484, which involved petitions seeking information on the drug war.
He read to the chamber: "The government's inclusion of these deaths among its other accomplishments may lead to the inference that these are state-sponsored killings."
Andres said that in the same ruling cited by the defense, the Supreme Court questioned the government's assertion that the deaths resulted from legitimate police operations, saying there was little proof.
He quoted the ruling:
"The Duterte Administration's 2017 Year End Report states that there were '3,967 drug personalities who died in anti-drug operations (from) July 1, 2016 to November 27, 2017,' and '16,355 homicide cases under Investigation (from) July 1, 2016 to September 27, 2017.' This is a total of 20,322 deaths during the Duterte Administration's anti-drug war from July 1, 2016 to November 27, 2017, or an average of 39.46 deaths every day. This Court wants to know why so many deaths happened as expressly reported under the section 'Fighting Illegal Drugs' of the Duterte's Administration 2017 Yearend Report."
The confirmation of charges hearing will determine whether there are substantial grounds to send Duterte to trial for crimes against humanity.
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