Harry Roque Backtracks, Says Sara Duterte No Longer Eyeing ICC Recognition As Father’s Counsel

Former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque clarified on Monday, March 17, that Vice President Sara Duterte will no longer seek to serve as legal counsel of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He clarified in a video posted on his Facebook account that the Vice President, as an elected public official, is not allowed to practice her profession as a lawyer under the Constitution.

“Lilinawin ko lang po ang mga lumalabas na report. Hindi po magiging abogado ng presidente si VP Sara dahil sa Saligang Batas natin ay may pagbabawal sa pag-practice ng propesyon,” he said.

Roque said the Vice President can visit her father being a family member and not as a counsel.

“Ang kanyang karapatan po para bumisita ay bilang anak. Ulitin ko po, hindi sya papasok bilang abogado,” he added.

During an earlier briefing, he said that the Vice President will seek recognition from the ICC to be a legal counsel of the former president “to give her a counsel’s access to an accused while under detention.”

“If VP Sara will apply (to be her father’s counsel), it’s only because she needs access to the (former) president. As a family member, it appears that every visit requires communication with the detention facility,” he said in an earlier media conference via Zoom in mix of English and Filipino.

Former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea told reporters covering in The Hague camp that so far, only British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, an ICC-accredited lawyer, had been tapped to part of the ex-president’s defense team.

Roque clarified he and the others being eyed to represent the former president have yet to be officially recognized by the court.

“I’m legal counsel for the president because I have given advice to the president on ICC matters. But I have not been officially recognized by the court as counsel… So far, they have only recognized (former executive) secretary Salvador Medialdea,” he added.

Fadi El Abdallah, ICC spokesman, said it’s up to judges to decide on requests by the camp of the former president.

“Should the defense submit requests, it would be for the ICC judges to decide on it,” Abdallah told reporters.

“Judges will have to decide on many issues between now and the date of a confirmation of charges. We can’t speculate about specific issues, should there be requests, the judges will decide on them,” he added.

The ICC spokesman was responding to requests for comment regarding the plan of the former president’s legal team to raise issues of jurisdiction and the surrender of the former president to the international tribunal.

During the initial appearance hearing last Friday, March 14, ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I Presiding Judge Iulia Motoc declined to tackle the issues raised by Medialdea, who appeared as the ex-president’s counsel.

She said the former president’s camp will have the opportunity to raise these issues during the “full procedure that will unfurl leading up to the confirmation of charges” on Sept. 23.

‘Out of order’

In an interview with “Storycon” on One News, University of the Philippines College of Law assistant professor Michael Tiu Jr. said the manifestation made by Medialdea during the initial appearance of the former president before the ICC was “unusual,” “out-of-order” and “inappropriate.”

He said the initial appearance hearing was not the time to raise the arguments pointed out by Medialdea.

“(It) is something that we’re used to here. But there, they really are careful about those cases… It was an inappropriate statement for that kind of proceeding,” Tiu, who is also head of the International Criminal Law Program of the UP Institute of International Legal Studies, said.

“It was not some kind of an oral argument where you can raise those things,” he added.

In his manifestation, Medialdea moved to postpone the hearing, citing the former president’s medical condition and the lack of time to prepare for the hearing.

Medialdea also took an offensive stance against the ICC, describing it as a “troubled legal institution subject to delegitimization and desperate for a prized catch and a legal show.”

He insinuated that the international tribunal “struck an unlikely alliance” with the Marcos administration.

For Tiu, the accusation was not a “very smart (thing) to say because the court is very protective of its integrity and also its legitimacy.”

“But also… maybe the court wasn’t the audience for that statement. They just took the opportunity to speak to somebody else through that medium,” he added.

On the supposed “extraordinary rendition,” Tiu said such cases usually involved individuals who are taken out of the protection of the court.

“Here, there is an entire body of law that protects this particular person. In fact, the court guarantees those rights,” he said.

Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio also reiterated a position that the ICC has jurisdiction over Duterte’s case, saying agencies like the Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation which were supposed to investigate drug war killings were “under the control of the president.”

He said no cases were filed against Duterte because he would “naturally never allow himself to be investigated or criminally prosecuted by the agencies under his control.”

“That is why while Duterte was president, the Philippine government was unable and unwilling to investigate or sue Duterte for the thousands of EJKs during his presidency,” Carpio said in a text message to The Philippine STAR.

Meanwhile, officials of the quad committee of the House of Representatives that investigated the alleged extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration will not turn over evidence to the ICC even if it makes a request.

“We’re not cooperating, we’re not coordinating and we’re not giving any information that was elicited from the quad comm hearings because we are not a member of the ICC, therefore we’re not obliged,” lead presiding chairman Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said.

“If they can access the records in the social media platforms, let them do it that way. But asking the participation of the quad comm, I’m sorry but we cannot because we are not a member of the ICC anymore,” the Surigao del Norte congressman said. – With Daphne Galvez, Delon Porcalla