A legal maneuver by the defense team of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has quietly closed one procedural front at the International Criminal Court — while leaving another firmly open.
Lead counsel Nicholas Kaufman filed a notification on March 16, 2026, withdrawing the defense’s earlier request for leave to appeal a classified ICC ruling. The filing was made “without prejudice,” preserving the team’s right to revisit the issue at a later stage of proceedings.
At the center of the dispute is the composition of the Common Legal Representatives for Victims, a group that includes attorneys Joel Butuyan and Gilbert Andres, along with case manager Nicolene Arcaina. The defense had moved to have them disqualified — a petition that Pre-Trial Chamber I, chaired by Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc and joined by Judges Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and María del Socorro Flores Liera, rejected on February 20, 2026.
The disqualification attempt followed the Registry’s January 26, 2026 appointment of Butuyan and Andres, alongside a counsel from the Office of Public Counsel for Victims, as common legal representatives — itself a consequence of the Chamber’s April 2025 order directing that victims in the case receive organized legal representation. Arcaina’s addition as case manager was disclosed by the CLRV team to the Chamber on the same day the defense lodged its challenge.
The victims’ legal team had pushed back firmly against the disqualification bid, arguing the defense was attempting to apply conflict-of-interest standards with no grounding in the court’s established rules, and that the existing representation arrangement posed no threat to the integrity or efficiency of the proceedings.
Kaufman’s withdrawal filing does not signal acceptance of that position. The defense stated it continues to view the CLRV’s role as what it described as “an impediment to representation” — an objection it has now reserved, rather than abandoned.
