Quad comm: Investigation in aid of ICC conspiracy
THIS episode will go to down in the Congress’ history as the depths of depravity the House of Representatives has sunk into.
Never before has the House served its Speaker’s ambition — for hundreds of millions of reasons, as they say — to succeed his cousin, President Marcos, in any form of government possible, an agenda which requires the total demonization of former president Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, a shoo-in to be the country’s next president, Vice President Sara Duterte.
But what makes the House so perverted is that its so-called quad committee (the joint sessions of four committees) hearings have been both orchestrated by International Criminal Court (ICC) operatives and for the ICC’s benefit, sources in Congress disclosed.
By “for the ICC’s” benefit, I mean three things.
First, the hearings facilitated what should be the task of the ICC: present “evidence” against Duterte, even if these involved a biased media’s false claims, such as the totally unproven “30,000” killed in the drug war, an exaggeration from the Philippine National Police’s reported 7,000 killed, a figure that approximated the number found by private objective investigators.* Indeed the ICC prosecutors’ report two years ago recommending an investigation into the drug war was to a very great extent based on reports by the anti-Duterte new site rappler.com as well the Amnesty International, the Manila branch of Human Rights Watch — which were based on the rappler.com reports.
The House inquisitors regurgitated allegations against Duterte — such as those made by mutineer Antonio Trillanes IV and the discredited former policeman Arturo Lascanas that were made over six years ago. The accusing representatives did not point out that these allegations had not and could not be used as evidence against Duterte, as these had been incontrovertibly proven false.
Indeed, two years after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assumed power, Duterte’s hard-line political enemies — said to be supported by the incumbent ruling power — such as former senator Leila de Lima, had not and could not file a single criminal case against him and his officials, despite their repeated allegations that his war on drugs claimed thousands of innocent lives.
However, these allegations — even the entire video or transcript of the hearings — would be submitted to the ICC, and the prosecutors will mislead the judges there that even the Philippine Congress had concluded in public hearings that Duterte undertook such extrajudicial killings (EJKs). The prosecutors, of course, would not explain that the congressional inquisition was practically a kangaroo court as the witnesses were not cross-examined, and the accused, even the former president, were not represented by counsel but only by lawyers who could not directly participate in the deliberations.
Secretly
Second, the ICC secretly had a team in Manila to witness both the Senate and House hearings — staying in posh hotels and reportedly even visiting House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s residence. These were British citizen William Rosato, who had been UN Human Rights Council’s team leader in the so-called Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya in 2020, which was dissolved in 2023. Rosato had another Britisher, Roderick Thomas, for assistant; and an American interpreter, May Destura Bracken.
Not only would this secret ICC team testify in the proceedings at The Hague on the authenticity of the transcripts and videos of the House hearings, they would claim that they themselves watched the proceedings on live internet streaming. Sources said they helped prepare the questions that the anti-Duterte congressmen asked the former president. This explains the fact that many of the questions cited articles in such British newspapers few Filipinos have access to, such as The Guardian and The Observer.
Third, the ICC provided the quadcomm with the materials to claim that Duterte’s war on drugs resulted in widespread human rights violations.
This was critical since none of the quad committee chairmen, nor any of its members who interrogated Duterte, expressed any interest in the human rights violation claim that was made by the communist fronts and, in alliance with the defunct Yellows, six years ago.
If these congressmen had in their staffs people classified as “researchers,” these would be, if not their relatives, purely office clerks. It was the ICC Office of the Prosecutor which provided the quad inquisitors the script to ask Duterte. This was obvious in that except for two or three, the quad interrogators were all reading from papers as they fielded their questions. This behavior was so unlike the senators in the latter’s hearing on the same EJK issue, who clearly were not reading from prepared questions.
Sources disclosed that heading this ICC staff that coached the quad interrogators was Maria Cristina Conti, who — probably in the quad’s subliminal recognition of her secret role — had her as the very first resource speaker in the hearing on Wednesday.
Conti deliberately hid her work as an ICC official when she introduced herself only as secretary-general of the NULP-NCR (National Union of People’s Lawyers-National Capital Region). NULP is a longtime leftist organization, whose founder Edre Olalia had been legal counsel of both the National Democratic Front and the late Communist Party head Jose Ma. Sison.
Propaganda
Fourth, other than to present in public as disguised black propaganda rehashed and disproven charges against Duterte, the quad committee’s main aim was to trick Duterte, known for his braggadocio, into testifying that he would agree to be tried by the ICC. Indeed, several inquisitors asked Duterte if he would be willing “to prove his innocence before the ICC.” As has been his style, the former president’s responses were confusing. He said he was willing to go to the ICC (based in The Hague, the Netherlands) but would kick its staff out of the Philippines if they come here. Later though, he claimed that he was not willing to be tried by foreigners.
Malacañang inadvertently revealed its hand in the quad committee investigation, and the probe’s aim, when just an hour after he said he would agree to be tried by the ICC, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin issued a statement that said, “If the former President desires to surrender himself to the jurisdiction of the ICC, the government will neither object to it nor move to block the fulfillment of his desire.”
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Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE -
Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the House of Representatives Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts Joint Committee Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024. PHOTOS BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE
The second part of Bersamin’s statement reveals the Marcos administration’s shameful, all-out project to have Duterte thrown in an ICC jail, even before the 2025 elections.
“But if the ICC refers the process to the Interpol, which may then transmit a red notice to the Philippine authorities, the government will feel obliged to consider the red notice as a request to be honored, in which case the domestic law enforcement agencies shall be bound to accord full cooperation to the Interpol pursuant to established protocols.”
A red notice is a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. A red notice, however, is not an international arrest warrant, and Interpol’s member countries may apply their own laws in deciding whether to arrest a person.
Yet Bersamin says that the Marcos government is “bound to accord full cooperation,” which he implies involves Duterte’s arrest and jailing in the ICC at The Hague.
How perverted has the Marcos government become. Just to neutralize Duterte, it will deliver him for incarceration to the ICC, even if there is no single case filed against him here, and our own legal system is working?
It was mutineer Antonio Trillanes IV, who first filed a case in 2017 against the former president for alleged widespread EJKs in the course of his war against illegal drugs. Trillanes’ case wouldn’t have gone anywhere if not for the support from the US, which wants Duterte’s political heir blocked from winning the presidency, because of his stance that the country must be taken out of its US vassalage. Duterte’s case at the ICC is practically the sole issue that the US can use to block his daughter Sara from the 2028 presidency.
The US’ and Speaker Romualdez’s interests are in perfect conjunction.
*I have written several columns showing how police data were deliberately distorted to exaggerate the casualties in Duterte’s war vs drugs. Among these: “How Rappler misled EU, Human Rights Watch, CNN, Time, BBC — the world”; “7,080 ‘EJKs’ and so much outrage; only three cases with details”; Ressa, Coronel and Rappler concocted false ‘27,000 killed’ number in antidrug war”; “Tatad’s fake data: ‘14,000 EJKs.'”
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The post Quad comm: Investigation in aid of ICC conspiracy first appeared on Rigoberto Tiglao.
Quad comm: Investigation in aid of ICC conspiracy
Source: Breaking News PH
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