Meet the Filipino lawyers who will represent victims in the ICC vs Duterte

2026-01-27 - 08:59

MANILA, Philippines – The International Criminal Court (ICC) has officially designated Filipino lawyers Joel Butuyan and Gilbert Andres as the common legal representative of victims, ahead of a new schedule for the pre-trial hearing of former president Rodrigo Duterte on February 23. “The chamber hereby instructs the Registry to appoint Mr. Joel Butuyan, Mr. Gilbert Andres, and a counsel from the OPCV [Office of Public Counsel for Victims], as the common legal representatives for any admitted victims,” the ICC pre-trial chamber I said in a decision issued from The Hague on Monday, January 26. Before this designation, foreign lawyers from OPCV had been representing drug war victims in the proceedings. OPCV is an independent organ of the ICC, similar to the function of the public attorneys office (PAO) in the Philippines. The ICC also has OPCD or Office of Public Counsel for Defence for defendants who cannot afford to hire their own lawyers. Now Filipino victims would be represented by Filipino lawyers. Butuyan and Andres are longtime human rights lawyers, both with the Center for International Law (CenterLaw), the group that their former colleague Harry Roque co-founded. Roque had long ago parted ways with CenterLaw as he chose to speak for Duterte’s administration. Roque is evading a warrant in the Philippines, and had been based in The Hague seeking asylum, before going to Vienna, Austria where his asylum application was referred to. “We have been assisting the families of victims throughout all those 10 years. We always held hope that this day of reckoning will come. Finally the victims’ families will be allowed to tell their stories now that the multiple obstacles and excuses put up by Mr. Duterte have been declared baseless by the ICC,” said Butuyan. “I am also very grateful for the trust reposed upon me and our whole Team by the different Victims’ groups and Human Rights NGOs working tirelessly to support the Victims of the ‘war on drugs’ in order to pursue their rights to justice and to the truth under international law,” said Andres. The ICC pre-trial chamber I have also authorized the participation of two groups of victims. One group consists of 29 victims, and the other group is still to be finalized. “On the basis of the guidelines of the pre-trial chamber, the VPRS [Victims Participation and Reparations Section] will sort out the remainder of the 300+ applicants,” Butuyan told Rappler. Some victims were denied participation because of several reasons, one of them for falling out of the period covered by the case. Because Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC which became effective in March 2019, the crimes against humanity case only covers killings from at least November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019. This had been a pain point for victims because many other victims were killed in the name of the war on drugs after March 16, 2019, up until Duterte stepped down from the presidency in 2022. Andres noted that the chamber’s decision allowed for more applications later on. The decision said: “The Chamber considers that, at this stage of the proceedings, the applicants admitted to participate appropriately represent the harms suffered as a consequence of the crimes charged in the DCC [Document containing the charges] and that any additional applications may be considered at a later stage, should the charges be confirmed and the suspect be committed to trial.” United group CenterLaw was among several legal human rights groups in the Philippines that had been fighting Duterte’s war on drugs since 2016. CenterLaw and the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) are petitioners in a still pending case in the Supreme Court to declare the war on drugs unconstitutional, particularly Duterte’s given powers to the police to knock on doors, and arrest suspects (or make them “surrender”). Andres and Butuyan also represent victims in local cases, one of them Efren Morillo, a drug war killing survivor. His case is now in the Supreme Court in what CenterLaw describes as an “absurd case” where the Philippine High Court has so far not heard a local case, whereas Duterte is already detained in The Hague. Andres and Butuyan are both accredited counsels in the ICC. EJKs. Atty. Kristina Conti attends the resumption of the Congress quad committee hearing on extrajudicial killings during the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte, on September 27, 2024. Kristina Conti of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) will continue to assist and speak for the drug war victims represented by the group “Rise Up for Life.” Conti is an ICC-accredited assistant to counsel. Recently, Filipino human rights lawyer Ross Tugade was also accredited as assistant to counsel in the ICC. Tugade also worked with CenterLaw, and was an attorney at the Commission on Human Rights. All of them are coordinating with each other in a recently-formed coalition called Duterte Panagutin Network (Hold Duterte Accountable) Network. The Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC) said: “Victims and their families have endured profound loss and years of impunity. Today’s development brings them closer to a reckoning that honors their suffering and asserts the primacy of human rights and international law.” TEARS OF JOY. Families of victims of extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration eagerly await, watch, and celebrate the International Criminal Court’s decision against the granting of an interim release petition by the Duterte defense, at the UP College of Law in Diliman, Quezon City, on November 28, 2025. – Rappler.com