by Diego Morra
The resignation of Rodrigo Duterte’s counsel Dov Jacobs as well as the decision to pick a replacement for lead defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman prove that everything has gone awry in the cases that the former president faces before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. ICC has already allowed Jacobs to retreat from the case while it will be strange for Kaufman to stay after his client informed him of his dismissal. It can never be anything else since Kaufman’s contract ended on March 31, 2026 and the client informed him that he is being replaced.
What compelled Duterte Sr. to change horses in midstream? Not the reported P150 million monthly professional fee since the Dutertes are certainly not poor, with Pulong Duterte’s son even bragging that P10-billion in the bank or at the safe at home is a measly amount to deploy in the service of the people. You have to have the money since politicians run for elective posts to serve, and doing so requires tons of cash. This attitude, coupled with the wisdom of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio who declared that “honesty is not needed in politics,” reinforces a universal belief that the Duterte political dynasty had been profiting from public money, or getting their cash from Chinese criminal syndicates. Or they could just make hay by controlling all the profitable businesses in Davao City.
The resignation of the leading defense lawyers will naturally impact on how the new team would craft their legal theory despite the documentary proof and the admissions of Duterte Sr. that he was the architect of the “extermination” of drug pushers, users but not the bigtime drug kingpins. The arrest and the filing of criminal charges against the head honcho the Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN), Franco Mabanta, and four of his cohorts in an entrapment by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) also weakens the social media campaign of the Duterte camp. Walang masamang tinapay kay Mabanta dahil siya pala ay humahawak ng mga politiko at naging pinuno pa ng socmed operations ni Ferdinand Marcos Jr. noong 2018, with the Marcoses reportedly kicking him out because of his weird ideas as well as addiction to gambling and illegal drugs.
PGMN is not your regular media outfit but a corporation dedicated to exploit the absence of gatekeepers and the failure of service providers to police cyberspace. Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and the Silicon Valley dons who pushed Internet and artificial intelligence (AI) do not even share the responsibility of weaning away the grain from the chaff. Immediately, this shows PGMN has nothing to do with journalism, or how the news is processed and disseminated. News is news that comes from the north, east, west and south. They must be truthful and those who use the term “fake news” do not understand that it is an oxymoron. If it is fake, it is not news. Call it rumor, call it gossip. The arrest of Mabanta and company is not “fake news” or “set up” or a conspiracy to trample the freedom of the press. Inasmuch as PGMN is part of the Duterte propaganda machinery and closely associated with SMNI, which is technically another Duterte operation, the Mabanta arrest shatters the credibility of its “news” and “commentaries.”
Kaufman may have asked the Dutertes, including the common-law wife Honeylet and daughter Kitty, Sara, Pulong and Baste to zip their mouths so as not to pressure the court or betray the defense tactics but they did not follow the advice. The worst thing they could do now is to pursue their case before the carton images of Digong in the sidewalks of The Hague even as the continuing pickets before the ICC have annoyed Dutch police. Duterte’s trolls, even those suffering from pruritus ani, are still at it, appointing characters in a US legal TV drama shows as the new lead lawyer and defense counsel.
Moreover, the House of Representatives is poised to approve the articles of impeachment against Sara and its transmittal with dispatch to the Senate, which will act as the impeachment court. It is the second disaster for the Duterte political dynasty inasmuch as it is impossible now for the Supreme Court (SC) to allow Sara a reprieve. Such accommodation can no longer obtain since all the issues have been joined and Sara’s response was blanket denial and a prayer for the SC to dismiss the impeachment complaints. Two questionable SC decisions on Sara’s impeachment would be a blot on the escutcheon of retiring SC Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo.
The two houses of Congress are expected to start the business of holding Sara’s feet to the fire and no amount of pressure from religious cults and special interest groups must delay or hinder the process. It is the Duterte political dynasty that has been trying to scupper the process using disinformation, prevarication and intimidation. Must the legislature bow to a political dynasty and cast aside its constitutional duty to conduct the trial, prosecute the accuse and render justice to the aggrieved—the Filipino people.
Sara thinks that the impeachment trial was hatched to prevent her march to Malacanang, which she claimed had been foreordained and she was sent to the vice presidency precisely to train her for the job. Unable to rebut all the allegations, Sara will now have the tragic choice of facing the charges and debunking, or sitting it out to avoid pointed questions about her inefficiency, financial mismanagement and disrespect for the rules of the Commission on Audit (COA) in both the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Office of the Vice President (OVP). Can she handle the interrogation without a script, or will she just fumble her way through the proceedings? Her absence will just pave the way for an equally disastrous result. Shukran. #
