Victims’ counsels ask ICC to deny Duterte appeal vs appointments

Two Filipino lawyers designated as external legal representatives of the drug war victims have asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber I to reject the request of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s camp to challenge an earlier ruling on the Filipino lawyers’ appointment as lawyers for the drug war victims.

In a nine-page filing dated March 12, lawyers Gilbert Andres and Joel Butuyan urged the court to deny the defense’s request for leave to question a February 20 decision that rejected the Duterte lawyers’ bid to revoke Andres and Butuyan’s appointment as common legal representatives (CLRVs) of the drug war victims.

“Simply put, the Request is hasty and severely lacking in legal reasoning besides mere assertion of presupposed conclusions the Defence continues to rely on the very reasoning the Chamber rejected as unduly speculative in its decision,” the pleading said.

“In sum, the Defence does not identify an issue arising from the Impugned Decision that could conceivably lead to appellate review for issues of fairness or expeditiousness of proceedings,” it added.

The two Filipino lawyers noted in the February 20 decision, Duterte’s lawyers “failed to indicate a conflict of interest” regarding the CLRVs.

“The bulk of the Defence’s arguments focus on its disagreements with the submissions of Mr. Butuyan and Mr. Andres. Very little is cited from the Impugned Decision other than its admonitions of Counsel to heighten the quality of their submissions before the Court and to rely on the strength of their argument rather than inflammatory rhetoric,” the CLRVs said in their filing.

The Filipino lawyers said that the defense team “merely expresses its disagreement with the outcome of the Chamber’s deliberation.”

“This disagreement is insufficient to necessitate the exceptional remedy of interlocutory appeal under the Statute. Rather than identifying a legal error, the Defence once more reiterates its displeasure with the ‘impugned arrangement’ of the LRV support team without reference to identifiable provisions or caselaw that address the concrete legal implications of the arrangement as actionable by the appellate review mechanism,” they added.

Earlier, Duterte’s legal team sought the disqualification of Andres, Butuyan, and case Nicolene Arcaina on grounds of an impediment to representation and conflict of interest. The defense claimed that Andres and Butuyan have a professional relationship with Arcaina, having worked with her at CenterLaw Philippines.

However, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I rejected the bid to revoke the two Filipino lawyers’ appointments due to the defense’s failure to show conflict of interest. — JMA, GMA Integrated News