Victims’ families are hopeful that the trial will continue as the fourth status conference of Rodrigo Duterte’s alleged crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC) concluded on October 13.

“This is important for us, because we are closely watching for justice to prevail through the ICC,” Dahlia Cuartero, mother of victim Jesus Cuartero, told the media in Filipino. “Justice here in the Philippines is hopeless.”

Duterte attended the status conference for the second time. The ICC Trial Chamber III discussed the preparations, including matters involving witnesses, evidence, disclosures, and the schedule of the first week of trial.

Similar to the previous status conference, ICC Presiding Judge Joanna Korner asked the prosecution to review the relevance of documents to avoid duplication.

The ICC Senior Trial Lawyer Julian Nicholls said that they have a team of analysts and experts that reviewed each document presented for trial. 

The prosecution will also use government data like Philippine National Police (PNP) records and the accomplishment report of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) to present the number of killings during Duterte’s presidential term. 

Korner flagged the defense for its seeming uncooperation in examining documents and the dataset presented by the prosecution. The prosecution offered multiple times to examine the documents but to no avail. They also proposed an independent expert to assist in the review.

“The prosecution is making all attempts to assist you (in examining the documents), and you’re just refusing it,” Korner said.

British lawyer Peter Haynes, lead legal counsel of Duterte (defense), said that there are some incidents in the documents that may be irrelevant to the case.

“We haven’t got the resources to go through 35,000 pages of Rule 77 material, to find all the cases in which these things were properly investigated, all the cases in which there is no relationship to the war on drugs at all, and that’s what we have to do,” Haynes said.

The ICC judges said that it could not yet impose an arbitrary limit on evidential items that the prosecution could present as it could violate their disclosure obligations.

“We take the view that the prosecution should review the database and any other documentation that it’s proposing, which in its possession, to indicate clearly to the defense what documents or materials could be considered exculpatory. I think that is the main and overarching task that the prosecution must carry out,” Korner ruled.

For Duterte Panagutin Network Europe, Duterte’s right to a fair trial should not be used as an excuse to delay the proceedings.

“The victims’ families cannot be made to wait indefinitely while the Defense wages procedural battles to delay the proceedings,” the network said in a statement.

The fifth status conference in the International Criminal Court (ICC) crimes against humanity case against former President Rodrigo Duterte is tentatively on November 2.

“The victims and their families have already waited too long, and they deserve a process that moves forward in good faith and upholds the timely administration of justice,” the network said.

The official start of trial is on November 30, after the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I unanimously confirmed all three counts of crimes against humanity against Duterte.

The ICC will be prosecuting cases related to the “drug war” during Duterte’s term as mayor and vice mayor of Davao City, and as the former president of the Philippines. The scope of the killings was limited between November 1, 2011, up to March 16, 2019, when the Philippine government was still a member of the Rome Statute.

“What we want is for the hearing to continue to hold Duterte accountable for his crimes and while he is still able,” Pasco said in Filipino. “We wish for him to be strong until the end of the trial so we could get the justice we deserve.” (AMU, DAA)