Malacañang distanced itself from former President Rodrigo Duterte’s ongoing case before the International Criminal Court (ICC), stressing that the Marcos administration has no role in his request for temporary liberty.
Press officer Claire Castro on Saturday rebuked Duterte’s lawyer, British-Israeli attorney Nicholas Kaufman, accusing him of distorting her earlier remarks. “Atty. Kaufman appears to have mastered the art of twisting some facts,” she said in a statement. “Again with emphasis, we want to be clear that the Marcos Jr. administration is not privy and has no hand in the former President Duterte’s ongoing trial before the ICC, particularly his request for interim release.”
Castro noted that the Philippine government remains only an observer in the proceedings. She added that Malacañang would respect whatever ruling the ICC issues regarding Duterte’s conditional release or any of his other pleadings. “As part of the legal process, no matter what the ICC decides, we will still respect it,” she said.
Her statement came after Kaufman cited her comments from a Sept. 24 press conference in the defense’s filing before ICC Pre-Trial Chamber 1. The lawyer quoted Castro as saying that Duterte’s frequent travels had “borne fruit” and that the Marcos administration would accept the court’s decision, which the defense claimed implied government acceptance of Duterte’s bid for release to an undisclosed country.
The chamber has yet to act on Duterte’s motion for interim liberty, along with related petitions challenging ICC jurisdiction and seeking the disqualification of Prosecutor Karim Khan. The case drew renewed attention this week after the court released the charge sheet against the former president, which includes three counts of murder tied to his alleged leadership of a death squad and the implementation of a monetary reward scheme under his anti-drug campaign.
