Duterte in ‘very heart’ of murderous drug crackdowns in Philippines, ICC to | Rodrigo Duterte

Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, was “at the heart” of brutal anti-drug campaigns that led to the killing of thousands of people, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) argued, as they asked for charges against him to proceed to trial.

Duterte, 80, who was arrested in Manila last year and flown to The Hague, is facing three counts of crimes against humanity over campaigns against drug users and traffickers during his presidency, and his earlier tenure as mayor of Davao City.

Duterte denied charges against him but did not attend Monday’s preliminary hearing. He announced last week that he would not be appearing as he was “old, tired and frail” and experiencing memory loss. The families of victims condemned his failure to appear before the court and accused him of cowardice.

Duterte, who was president from 2016 to 2022, is charged with 49 incidents involving 78 victims of murder and attempted murder, although ICC deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang said this was “merely a fraction of the overall criminality” stemming from the “war on drugs.”

Niang claimed that Duterte was “at the heart” of a plan to “neutralize suspected criminals, including by killing.” After becoming mayor of Davao in 1988, Duterte formed a notorious group known as the Davao Death Squad (DDS), “to kill criminals and suspected criminals,” Niang said. As president, Duterte expanded it through a national network “composed of law enforcement personnel, working with non-police assets and hitmen,” Niang told the court.

The prosecutor accused Duterte of exercising “ultimate influence and authority” over the perpetrators of drug crackdowns, of approving murder, selecting some of the targets, promising immunity and giving financial support to perpetrators.

While Davao Mayor Duterte’s office provided a regular salary to certain members of the DDS, Niang claimed, adding that rewards were also given “in the form of cash per head for killing.”

Some were killed out of fear, while others were encouraged by promises of money or “a perverse form of competition” to meet killing quotas and get promotions and rewards, the prosecutor said.

Niang quoted from several of Duterte’s speeches that appeared to incite or condone violence, including a 2016 speech in which Duterte said he rode around Davao on a motorcycle “looking for trouble” so he could kill. “I did it personally just to show the guys that if I can do it, why can’t you,” Duterte was quoted as saying.

Separately, Duterte was quoted in a televised interview: “If I become president, you will all be wiped out. I will order your execution within 24 hours.”

The preliminary hearing is for prosecutors to lay out their case so that judges can decide whether there are substantial grounds to believe Duterte committed the alleged charges, and therefore move the case to trial. The hearing will end on Friday and a written decision will be issued within 60 days.

The Duterte Panagutin Campaign Network, which advocated for victims of the drug crackdown, called Monday’s pretrial hearing “a historic step in the long quest for justice and accountability.”

Between 12,000 and 30,000 civilians have died in connection with drug operations, according to previous estimates cited by the ICC prosecutor. Many were men in poor, urban areas who were shot dead in the streets or in their homes.

Victims and their advocates have in the Philippines to watch live broadcasts of the hearings, while some traveled to The Hague. Duterte’s supporters also gathered at the court to express their support for the former leader.

Duterte’s defense lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, said his client was a “unique phenomenon” who was full of “hyperbole, bluster and rhetoric,” but said he should not be judged based on his “coarse demeanor or his vulgar language.”

He accused the prosecution of cherry-picking the former leader’s speeches and ignoring occasions where Duterte “tempered his bombastic language” and referred “to the principle of lawful self-defense.”

He also dismissed claims that Duterte’s drug crackdowns were a “war on the poor,” saying Duterte’s policies helped the poorest, and describing Duterte as a man who led a frugal existence. As president, his diet consisted “not of prime cuts of imported Australian beef, but of dried fish and boiled rice”, adding that he slept in the “spartan quarters of his bodyguard’s hut”.

Kaufman said Duterte has been targeted by political enemies and has hit out at NGOs, human rights activists and media he accused of lacking objectivity. Duterte has made Davao a safer place, he said, citing his electoral successes in the city.

Even as Duterte’s policies drew international ire, he remained popular domestically. His daughter, the Vice President, Sara Duterte, announced last week that she will run for the presidency in the country’s 2028 election, with opinion polls suggesting she would be a strong contender.

Joel Butuyan, who addressed the court as a legal representative of victims, said families who spoke out “live in constant fear.”

I asked for the case to proceed to trial, and I contested defense claims that Duterte’s violent speeches should not be taken literally. “If he was just flashy and flippant, the people who were killed should be alive today laughing at his supposed pranks,” he said.

Sarah Celiz (61), whose two sons Almon and Dicklie were killed in separate incidents in 2017, called on Duterte to attend the hearings this week.

“He never showed us any mercy,” said Celiz, who spent years campaigning for Duterte to be tried. “My son begged for mercy, but he showed none. So why should we show him mercy?”