Saving Rodrigo Duterte hard even for ‘world’s best’ lawyers – Butuyan

Former President Rodrigo Duterte jokes to photographers as he holds an Israeli-made Galil rifle at Camp Crame in suburban Quezon City northeast of Manila, Philippines on April 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

MANILA, Philippines — How can you save a client whose biggest witness against him is himself?

This is the problem of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal counsel, according to International Criminal Court (ICC)-accredited lawyer Joel Butuyan.

Butuyan made this remark on Monday after the Duterte camp confirmed that it had British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman as lead counsel.

“You can be the best and the brightest defense lawyer in the world, but with a client that provided the ammunition to the prosecution, like in this particular case, I don’t know how you can actually obtain an acquittal,” Butuyan said in an online press conference of Focap.

“So I’m really confident that the evidence of the prosecution is airtight, that we are going to win a conviction, whoever is going to be the defense counsel,” he added.

Based on his LinkedIn profile, Kaufman’s legal services span from celebrities to politicians and “other high-profile individuals around the world.”

Kaufman then served as a trial lawyer of the “International Court for the former Yugoslavia.”

He also worked as a defense counsel for the ICC.

This time, Kaufman will represent a client who himself repeatedly admitted to ordering the police to kill suspects during the drug war.

READ: ‘Happy’ to kill: Rodrigo Duterte’s views on drug deaths

At least 6,000 people were killed during the Duterte administration’s drug war, according to official government data.

However, rights watchdogs and the ICC prosecutor estimated the death toll to be between 12,000 and 30,000 from 2016 to 2019.

READ: The fall of ‘The Punisher’: Rodrigo Duterte’s path to the ICC

Butuyan said Duterte’s case “will go down in history as the international criminal case where the accused himself facilitated his own conviction.”

READ: ICC sets Duterte confirmation of charges hearing Sept. 23

“It is an unprecedented case where the accused himself provided the overwhelming evidence that led to his conviction,” he added. “This is because the biggest, strongest, and most important witness of the prosecution is the accused—Mr. Duterte—himself.”

Duterte was arrested on March 11 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. He was then transferred to the Villamor Air Base before he was flown to The Hague, where he is now being detained.

Duterte had his pretrial on March 14, while the confirmation of charges will be held on September 23, before which he could appeal for an interim release. With reports from Keith Clores, INQUIRER.net intern