Trillanes: I've been seeking witnesses vs. Duterte, Bato since 2017

Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said on Friday that he would not let former president Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa get off the hook before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their involvement in the previous administration’s bloody drug war. 

“Bato Dela Rosa has been ranting lately because I was supposedly trying to convince witnesses to testify against Duterte and him,” he said in a Facebook post. “Di ba 2017 ko pa ginagawa ‘yan?” 

“At hindi ako hihinto na gawin ‘yan hanggang sa mapakulong ko sila ni Duts (Duterter). Kuha?”

Dela Rosa on Wednesday said he had information that National Intelligence Coordinating Agency director general Ricardo De Leon and Trillanes supposedly asked police officials to execute affidavits implicating him and former President Rodrigo Duterte in connection with the killings blamed on the war on drugs.

The former PNP chief said De Leon and Trillanes did this in separate meetings with the police officers in the presence of House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Elizaldy Co. 

Trillanes IV and former Magdalo Party-list Representative Gary Alejano filed a communication to the ICC in June 2017 that adopted and supplemented lawyer Jude Sabio’s complaint.

Sabio, the lawyer of self-confessed former hitman Edgar Matobato, filed the first complaint against  Duterte and other senior officials in April 2017. 

The complaint alleged that Duterte "repeatedly, unchangingly and continuously" committed crimes against humanity in his war on drugs and that under him, killing drug suspects and other criminals has become "best practice."

But Sabio  Sabio withdrew his communication from the ICC in January 2020, saying it should be thrashed “for being just a part of the political propaganda of Senator [Antonio] Trillanes, Senator [Leila] De Lima, and their LP-led opposition of which I do not wish to be a part of.”

Although President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC in the Philippines, Trillanes said the International Criminal Police Organization can serve the arrest warrant. —Vince Ferreras/LDF, GMA Integrated News