‘God Sees the Truth, But Waits’

By Herbert Vego

THAT quotation is the title of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s most famous story, which is about a merchant wrongly imprisoned in Siberia for a murder he had not committed.

The story reminds me of the reaction of Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima to the news report that the International Criminal Court (ICC) had made the world smaller not just for former President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte but also for his alleged cohorts behind the extrajudicial killings committed while he was mayor of Davao City and later president of the Philippines.

Ironically, it was De Lima (elected senator in 2016) who had suffered seven long years in prison for alleged collaboration with illegal drug syndicates.

Needless to say, she is vindicated. It’s now Duterte who is in detention in the ICC jail at The Hague for “crimes against humanity,” allegedly in cahoots with drug syndicates.

The ICC recently declassified information that Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go could have been Duterte’s “co-conspirators.”

Also named in the ICC’s “Document Containing the Charges” are former Philippine National Police (PNP) chiefs Oscar Albayalde, Camilo Cascolan (deceased), and Vicente Danao; former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II; former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Dante Gierran; and former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) director Isidro Lapeña.

Broadly stated, the ICC document concerns three categories.

The first focuses on murders committed in and around Davao City between 2013 and mid-2016 by police and hitmen that De Lima, in her capacity as justice secretary then, had tagged as the Davao Death Squad — yes, the original “DDS.”

The second is about the killings of so-called “high-value targets” during the Duterte presidency, among whom were Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr.

The third category zeroes in on murders and attempted murders targeting lower-level drug pushers and users in the barangays.

Since Sen. dela Rosa has remained inaccessible and absent from the Senate since November last year, we can’t help but quote the legal principle that “flight indicates guilt.”

Will Sen. Go go into hiding, too?

Will anybody from the PNP hunt and serve them an ICC warrant of arrest as retired Gen. Nick Torre had done to Duterte on March 11, 2025?

Meanwhile, we await with bated breath the ICC pretrial chamber’s reading and confirmation of charges against Duterte on February 23, 24, 26, and 27.

It could have taken place on September 23, 2025, had Digong’s British-Israeli lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, not called for postponements for various reasons that the ICC eventually junked.

As to what’s up his sleeve this time remains to be seen.

In the opinion of Atty. Kristina Conti, the Filipino ICC assistant to counsel, the foreign lawyer’s resistance to an ICC trial could only mean that there is “enough evidence” to convict ex-President Duterte of crimes against humanity.

Does not common sense tell us that a detained, innocent suspect would welcome a speedy trial to clear his name?

The pretrial chamber has authorized the participation of an initial batch of 39 victims or relatives of dead victims as prosecution witnesses.

Some of the pieces of evidence to be used against Duterte are video recordings of him instructing authorities to kill.

At least three of them — now living in undisclosed places abroad — are believed to have qualified as witnesses against the accused.

Filipino lawyers Joel Butuyan and Gilbert Andres will represent all witnesses in the four-day confirmation of charges.

The forthcoming pretrial signals the end of the frustration of widows, orphans, and siblings who have been denied their day in a Philippine court.