By DIEGO MORRA
There is no sense tackling the pathetic effort of the defense lawyers of Rodrigo Duterte led by the British-Jewish lawyer Nicholas Kaufman to win “interim release” for his client, who had earlier had mocked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest him before the angel of death beats them, saying he was ready for trial and would beat the daylight out of the prosecution.
Of course, Rodrigo is known for chasing noise, grasping water, and dishing out lies in liberal quantities to beat Donald Trump at his game. He has no truck with the truth and his expertise is deny, divert, deflect and disseminate drivel. Kaufman was so keen on winning the “interim release” of his client he manufactured his alternative truth in his ICC submission—the prosecutors had no objection to Duterte’s release — an error so basic that it amounts to confirming that pigs can fly, birds have teeth, and fish climb trees.
The “urgent appeal” just doesn’t wash, especially when the prosecutors made short shrift of the filing, telling the ICC that it was weird on Kaufman’s part to claim the “non-opposition” of the prosecution to the plea for Duterte’s “interim release.” Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang expressed surprise at the Kaufman gambit, telling Pre-Trial Chamber 1 (PTC1) that there was no deal with Kaufmans, the prosecutors did not agree with the conditions of the release and other aspects of Kaufman’s tale. Forthwith, Niang asked the PTC1 to just throw out the Duterte plea. When lawyers lie in their filings, they ultimately lose their cases.
It is unusual for a well-paid defense lawyer to commit grievous legal mistakes in their submissions and a plea to win “interim release” for Duterte is a serious matter that should have compelled Kaufman and his assistants to think deeply about their arguments to win temporary liberty for their client. As reports have it, Kaufman is purportedly well paid, and the figure floated, 40,000 euro monthly, might be a tad low compared to the 2.5-million euro that is supposed to be his fee for representing Duterte each month, for a total of 15 million euro in six months, or about P1-billion.
With the Kaufman submission and the previous ploys to demand passports from the dead to better identify them, as well as the diatribe against the PTC-1 judges, the insults against the assistant counsel lawyer Krissy Conti, as well the social media campaign by the Duterte keyboard warriors, the Kaufman moves hew closely to the Duterte stratagem, which may delude some people Filipinos, especially the glassy-eyed Duterte zealots, but is meaningless, irrelevant and obnoxious to the ICC and PTC1. The trouble with Kaufman is that the architecture of his legal theory panders to Duterte, who is enamored with the news cycle and less concerned with the trial proper, with more cases apparently wending their way to the ICC, including the murders of a Spaniard in a purported drug bust in Mindanao in 2020, along with the summary “tokhang” executions of citizens whose relatives have been threatened with retribution should they pursue their cases.
In another statement, Kaufman committed a blooper as he said the defendant promised not to continue to commit crimes, implying that he had committed crimes in the past. Conti noted the gravity of the charges lodged against Duterte precludes him from enjoying “interim release.” The allegations that Duterte committed crimes against humanity for more than six years, from the time he was the sultan of Davao City until he wielded power at Malacanang, prevent him from enjoying temporary liberty. Citing his actions to prevent prosecution, from withdrawing the Philippines from the Rome Statute that governs the ICC to his mocking the global tribunal, eschewing its jurisdiction over him and questioning the very validity of the statute, the prosecution cannot believe that Duterte, an autocrat, would abide by the promises that he had made.
If Duterte himself could threaten his arresting officer, now Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Nicolas Torre, telling him that his children would go after him, there is no guarantee that he will suddenly turn civil and change overnight from being a lawless president and criminal defendant into a law-abiding sheep. So unsure that Duterte would be civilized in Belgium and Australia, both countries rejected the plea of the Duterte family to host him. Duterte is reaping what he has sown. All his braggadocio has evaporated, all the vicious slander against his political enemies reduced to a whimper. He must be comfortable with the wandering spirit of Slobodan Milosevic, who died at the Scheveningen prison in The Hague before his trial for the Srebrenica genocide was concluded. Well, misery loves company.
Indeed, the Dutertes are really damaged goods. Polong was caught on video mauling a businessman who turned out to be his procurer of entertainers and ended the ordeal by giving him P1,000 per punch, slap, kick and curse. This is the same guy who wangled P51 billion in pork barrel for Davao City and neighboring areas supposedly to finance flood control projects. Then, there is Baste slamming Torre for jumping over the heads of hundreds of his superiors to become PNP chief, forgetting that Bato de la Rosa was named PNP chief despite having only one star. Of course, Sara beats them all. Her response to the impeachment complaint? No defense, no rebuttal but an ocean of legal calisthenics. She cannot take the bull by the horns.
