By Rodolfo Dacleson II
(April 7, 2025) – A lawyer accredited by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday said former president Rodrigo Duterte may face other charges on top of murder over his alleged crimes against humanity during his brutal war on drugs.
Atty. Joel Butuyan noted that the tribunal’s Office of the Prosecutor could include additional charges against Duterte ahead of his confirmation of charges on September 23, which will determine if his case will proceed to trial.
“That’s (murder) only a single charge. Not included are illegal imprisonment, torture, illegal detention, and other inhumane acts,” said Butuyan, as quoted by the Philippine News Agency.
Duterte is facing 43 counts of murder due to his alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings during his tenure as mayor of Davao City and president of the Philippines from 2011 to 2019.
ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah already said the charges were only for the purpose of issuing an arrest warrant, adding that they are “a representative sample of the multiple acts of violence.”
Butuyan, one of only five lawyers from the Philippines accredited by the ICC, echoed Abdullah.
“The ICC case is not the trial of the 30,000 deaths. It is a trial of who planned to make the killings a policy in resolving the drug problem. What is at stake here is who masterminded it,” added Butuyan, the president of the non-profit organization CenterLaw Philippines.
Human rights groups estimated that around 30,000 individuals were killed during Duterte’s cruel war on drugs.
“Under ICC rules, even one death is enough as long as you can prove that a policy was made that this is the solution to the drug problem, to kill them. The 43 (cases cited by the ICC) is more than enough,” added Butuyan.
Article 7 of the Rome Statute states that an act could be considered a crime against humanity if committed as part of a “widespread and systematic” attack against civilians.
(PM)
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