Viewing Duterte’s pre-trial

By Herbert Vego

BASED on the first of the four-day televised confirmation of charges hearings on former President Rodrigo Duterte in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, my two cents worth is that he committed crimes against humanity over his bloody war on drugs.

The alleged “widespread and systematic” killings during his term as mayor of Davao City and as president of the Philippines could not be whitewashed by the denial of his counsel, Nicholas Kaufman.

The video recordings replayed at the ICC could not be shrugged off because they show him ordering the police to “kill, kill, kill.”

The “three counts of murder and attempted murder” in the charge sheets are not as few as may be misinterpreted. The first count covers Duterte’s alleged hand in 19 murders carried out by the police and hitmen between 2013 and 2016 while he was mayor of Davao City.

The second concerns 14 murders of “high value targets” in 2016 and 2017 when he was president.

The third charges him with 43 murders committed during “clearance” operations of lower-level alleged drug users and pushers between 2016 and 2018.

Lawyer Joel Butuyan, representing the victims of the drug war, could not have been more convincing than what he said in his opening statement: “This case symbolically represents the last boat that the victims can board to go on a journey in search of justice for their loved ones who were brutally killed upon the orders of Mr. Duterte.”

While listening to him on TV, I could visualize the living victims and relatives of the dead, fearing for their own lives if Duterte would be allowed to return home on the basis of old age (80 turning 81 on March 28).  Old age has never been a legal reason to escape accountability. He is still dangerous.

How could the ICC judges be persuaded when Duterte had threatened to slap them prior to his arrest in Manila on March 12, 2025?

His daughter Sara still wields power as vice-president; son Paulo, representative of Davao City’s 1st district; and son Sebastian, mayor of Davao City.

-oOo-

IT WAS A CASE OF EJK 

“THE Court will not tolerate the abuse of authority by those entrusted with the enforcement of the law. Law enforcers are duty-bound to protect life and to uphold the Constitution.”

This was how Associate Justice Emilio Rodolfo Y. Legaspi III of the Court of Appeals (CA) 13th Division premised his recent decision affirming the crime of murder against a police officer, Po1 Jeffrey Sumbo Perez, over the apparently extra-judicial killings of Carl Angelo M. Arnaiz, 19, and Reynaldo “Kulot” D. De Guzman, 14.

The CA ruling sustained the March 1, 2023 decision of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of   Navotas City, Branch 287, finding accused-appellant Jeffrey Sumbo Perez guilty beyond reasonable doubt of two counts of murder.

Briefly, Jeffrey Perez and PO1 Ricky E. Arquilita of the Caloocan City Police Office had been found guilty by the RTC for the fatal shooting of Arnaiz and stabbing of De Guzman in Navotas City, Metro Manila in August 2017.

Perez was meted the penalty of reclusion perpetua (imprisonment for 20 years or up to 40 years), without eligibility for parole.

Arquilita, on the other hand, died in the pendency of the RTC trial.

Associate Justice Emilio Rodolfo Y. Legaspi III (the ponente of the appealed decision) is a native of San Jose, Antique.

The CA 13th Division also includes Associate Justices Rafael Santos as chairman and Roberto P. Quiroz as member.

-oOo-

MORE POWER BRINGS HOME THE BACON 

THE good news from Jonathan Cabrera, spokesman of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), is that the big boss had arrived from a three-week conference in San Diego, California.

MORE Power President and CEO Roel Z. Castro, he said, led a delegation of Filipinos to the Distribution Technology Conference and Exhibit (DTECH) at the San Diego Convention Center.

Organized by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), the event helped energy leaders explore advanced U.S. technologies in power distribution, particularly for “last-mile” service to households and businesses.

The topics discussed focused on exploring artificial intelligence (AI) for data analytics and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to improve efficiency and customer service; management of two-way power flows from solar panels, battery storage, and electric vehicles; and studying methods for better protection systems, islanding measures, and modernization to prevent outages.

To quote Castro in a news report written by our good friend Tara Yap, “We discussed how new technologies are reshaping power distribution systems—particularly at the local or the ‘last-mile’ level that directly serves households and businesses.”