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03:55Thank you very much.
03:56I would now like to call upon parties and participants to confirm that the people here
04:02in the courtroom are the same as the ones present yesterday.
04:08Mr. Prosecutor?
04:12Good morning, Madam President, Your Honours.
04:16There are a few changes in the composition of the OTP team today.
04:22I'm here representing the OTP team is Julian Nichols, is Julian Nichols, senior trial lawyer.
04:33He was here.
05:03Thank you, our case manager, our case manager, our case manager.
05:05Thank you very much, Mr. Prosecutor.
05:08legal representatives of the OTP team.
05:41Thank you very much.
05:52Thank you, Mr. Prosecutor.
06:12And we're on some of the evidence on some of the evidence that demonstrates Mr. Duterte's responsibility
06:18for the crimes charged in counts two and three.
06:24My presentation will comprise two parts.
06:28Part one will focus on the crimes charged in counts two.
06:33And as you know, this count relates to the murders of 14 so-called high value targets.
06:42And part two will focus on examples of crimes charged in counts three.
06:48And this count relates to murders and attempted murders of 45 victims in the course of barangay
06:57or neighborhood clearance operations.
07:04First, your honor, is a brief introduction.
07:07As Mr. Nichols made clear yesterday, Mr. Duterte campaigned for the presidency that on the basis
07:16that if elected, he would implement his Davao model of killing on a national scale.
07:25And once sworn in as president of the Philippines on the 30th of June 2016, this is exactly what he
07:34did.
07:36One insider witness explained what applying the Davao model nationwide meant in practice.
07:43And this is tab 49.
07:47As we see on our screens, Evidence Channel 2, this witness stated, quote,
07:53quote, it means that he wants to apply how Davao addresses the drug problem in a national scope, the whole
08:02country.
08:03It means that zero tolerance on drugs.
08:07And what I understood is that we have to eliminate, neutralize drug pushes just as in Davao.
08:18And as we've heard, this Davao model also included the payments of rewards for such killings.
08:26And as president, Mr. Duterte expanded and replicated this Davao model across the Philippines,
08:34working together with many of the same people, his co-perpetrators, following the same plan and using the same methods.
08:45On becoming president, Mr. Duterte appointed his co-perpetrators from Davao, a number of whom Mr. Nichols introduced yesterday,
08:54to senior positions in the police and the government.
08:58And in these high-level positions, Mr. Duterte and his co-perpetrators had authority over thousands of state personnel,
09:09including those that formed the national network that the co-perpetrators used to carry out the charged crimes,
09:18as Ms. Croft will shortly describe in more detail.
09:22And, Your Honours, central to this plan to carry out the charged crimes was the formal national anti-illegal drugs
09:33campaign in the Philippines.
09:36And this campaign was launched through a document titled Command Memorandum Circular No. 16-2016.
09:48This was issued by newly appointed PMP chief, Ronald De La Rosa, on the 1st of July 2016, the first
09:58full day of Mr. Duterte's presidency.
10:03On our screens, we see the first and last page of this document, and this is tab 112 of our
10:11binder.
10:12We see that the subject is, quote, PMP anti-illegal drugs campaign plan project double barrel.
10:23And we see it is dated the 1st of July 2016.
10:29On the first page, there are a series of supporting references for this memorandum.
10:34And the first foundational reference is the, quote,
10:41pronouncement of President Rodrigo a Duterte to get rid of illegal drugs during the first six months of his term.
10:51And yesterday, we heard multiple examples of the violent nature of those pronouncements and speeches.
11:01If we focus on the last page of this document, page 18, we see that the distribution list comprise the
11:08highest levels of law enforcement in the Philippines.
11:12And on the right side, we see it's signed by Ronald M. De La Rosa, Philippine National Police, the PMP.
11:23And, your honours, we'll look now at some parts of this document which essentially sets out general guidelines for the
11:31implementation of this project double barrel.
11:36Focusing first on the execution of this project double barrel, we see on page in paragraph five, now on our
11:47screens, as follows.
11:48The PMP intends to equally address illegal drug problems in the barren guys and at the same time pursue the
11:57neutralization of illegal drug personalities,
12:01as well as the backbone of illegal drugs network operating in the country.
12:07And, your honours, we'll note the use of this word neutralization.
12:13While on its face, this word may be open to interpretation.
12:19Insider witnesses provide evidence that within law enforcement within the Netherlands, within the Philippines, forgive me, to neutralize meant to
12:30kill.
12:30And, notably, one insider witness explained the significance of the use of this word neutralize in this command memorandum.
12:41And that's tab 54.
12:43And the witness stated as follows, quote, they used the word neutralize to emphasize the kill order of President Duterte.
12:56Because that is the promise of President Duterte even before the campaign.
13:03And, your honours, the sprinkling of references to human rights in this document should be viewed in this context.
13:13Moving on to the concept of operations, this is set out on page three of this memorandum.
13:20As follows, quote, the PMP anti-illegal drugs campaign plan, Project Double Barrel, will be conducted in a two-pronged
13:31approach.
13:31Namely, Project Tokang and Project HVT.
13:37The first prong or barrel, Project Tokang, focused on the clearance of the drug affected barangais.
13:44And this relates to count three, which I'll discuss shortly in the second part of my presentation.
13:50The second barrel, which relates to count two, was Project HVT or High Value Target, which I will focus on
13:58now.
14:00Turning to page six of this document, we read as follows.
14:06Project HVT is a massive and reinvigorated conduct of anti-illegal drugs operations targeting illegal drugs personalities and drug syndicates.
14:21And, as your honours are aware, it was in the course of this Project HVT that the prosecution alleges the
14:2914 victims of count two were murdered.
14:34And many of the high value target victims of count two incidents were included in charts and lists that Mr.
14:43Duterte showed during public, often televised appearances and speeches.
14:49And just as he did in Davao, as president, Mr. Duterte publicly named persons he alleged were involved in drugs.
15:00And many of those would end up as victims in his so-called war on drugs.
15:06For example, on the 7th of August 2016, Mr. Duterte held a televised press conference in Davao City, during which
15:17he named 150 public officials who he claimed were involved in the drug trade.
15:23These included a Brera mayor, Rolando Espinosa, and a Samis mayor, Reynaldo Parahinog, as well as various members of the
15:36Parahinog family.
15:37This speech is at tab 31, and we'll play two clips of that now.
16:02Rolando Parahinog, alias Andong, the mayor of Usami City.
16:09Nova Princess Parahinog, Nova Princess Parahinog Chavez, used to be the wife of, I think, Kulanko.
16:20Yung poster boy doon sa blandy-blandy pa ang buhok.
16:26Hindi naman, tisoy.
16:42Wherever you go, I will be waiting for you, even if I'm no longer president, as long as I have
16:49a gun.
16:50And indeed, as your honours are aware, Mr. Duterte did not need to wait long.
16:57On the 5th of November 2016, Mayor Espinosa was murdered.
17:02That's charged incident 13.
17:05Then, on the 30th of July 2017, Mayor Parahinog, together with a number of others, was also murdered.
17:13That's charged incident 14.
17:17And during the same speech that we just saw, Mr. Duterte emphasised his direct involvement in the preparation of this
17:26list, as follows.
17:45And this list was subsequently published by the media, who referred to it as the narco list, or as we
17:52see from the article on our screens, simply the Duterte list.
17:59And, your honours, Mr. Duterte continued to flaunt his list of so-called high-value targets.
18:06Perhaps the most significant of these lists was the President Rodrigo Roa Duterte list, or the PRRD list for short,
18:17and that's at tab 48 of our list of materials.
18:19Your honours, this was basically an Excel-style spreadsheet that listed persons alleged to be high-value targets.
18:30The slide now on our screen shows the first page of the PRRD list, which includes photos of various persons
18:38designated alleged to be high-value targets.
18:42And at the bottom of this list are a series of different tabs, some of which have been enlarged on
18:50our screens.
18:51And as we see, they include different regions of the Philippines.
18:56And within these tabs are lists of names and identifying information of persons alleged to be high-value targets.
19:05And the persons included in this PRRD list were also assigned different levels, as set out in our PCB, in
19:14our brief paragraph 99.
19:17As we see from the slide now on our screens, these levels ranged from 1 to 5.
19:23At the lowest level 1, this included lower-level government and police, as well as street-level pushers.
19:31And at the highest level 5, this represented the highest-value targets, drug wholesalers, financiers, and high-ranking police officers.
19:44And consistent with the Davao model of killing, rewards were also paid when a high-value target was neutralized, meaning
19:54killed.
19:54And this evidence is set out at paragraph 52 and 99 of our brief.
19:59And these rewards were not part of the regular PNP budget, but were provided by Mr. Duterte, who also publicly
20:09offered perpetrators rewards for killing.
20:14Your Honours, to sum up the significance of the PRRD list, I turn to the words of another insider witness,
20:23and this is tab 54.
20:27Quote, this list was used by the police in their operations.
20:32And if you are in the list, you will be the subject for police operations.
20:37And most of the time, the people on the list are killed.
20:41So basically, the PRRD list is a dead list.
20:47And Mr. Duterte publicly paraded this PRRD list on multiple occasions.
20:54For example, during another televised speech on the 2nd of February 2017, tab 111, he stated the following.
21:07This is the drug industry of the Philippines.
21:13And in this same speech, we'll shortly see Mr. Duterte holding another page of this PRRD list, reacting to criticisms
21:23based on human rights in relation to his so-called war on drugs.
21:45And your Honours, on this issue of human rights, as Mr. Nichols explained yesterday, during his speeches in Davao, Mr.
21:55Duterte, well-versed in the law,
21:58would occasionally seek to legitimize his encouragement of state violence by references to human rights and self-defense.
22:08And he continued to do so as president.
22:12For example, as we will see in the next clip, during a speech on the 20th of September 2016, which
22:20is at tab 130, he stated the following.
22:47For as long as I am the president.
23:09So that was Mr. Duterte's message to the military and to the police.
23:15Kill, whether or not your target pulls a gun, and I will protect you.
23:22And your Honours, as we will now hear, during the same speech, in case there was any doubts, Mr. Duterte
23:30made it very clear that this promise of protection related not only to lawful killings.
23:38For as long as there is that power to pardon sa Constitution, iyan ang weapon ko against crime.
23:49Mga masaker kayo na isandaan.
23:53Magmasaker kayo na isandaan.
23:54Isandaan din kayo.
23:56E di pardon lahat eh.
23:59Restore to political and civil rights plus a promotion to vote.
24:10and your honors as was so often the case mr duterte's message was repeated and amplified
24:18in the media as we see in the next slide which is tab 88 which reads as follows quote duterte
24:28troops massacre criminals i'll promote you with the byline in the same speech duterte tells
24:35soldiers he will never order them to do anything illegal and this was the pattern your honors
24:43out of one side of his mouth quietly occasionally he would speak about self-defense this was mr
24:52duterte the lawyer keenly aware of his own legal jeopardy especially once he was no longer president
25:00and out of the other side of his mouth loudly frequently he would say kill and i will protect
25:08you i will pardon you and i will promote you and this was mr duterte the strong man president
25:15who orders the murders of drug lords and alleged criminals and as the charged image incidents
25:23demonstrate mr duterte's co-perpetrators as well as the police on the streets understood his message
25:32to kill loud and clear as an example your honors i'll focus briefly now on incident number 13
25:41you'll recall that on assuming his presidency mr duterte publicly expressed his frustration with
25:48mayors who he alleged were involved in the drug trade including mayor espinosa
25:55on the 1st of august 2016 he gave mayor espinosa then mayor of albrera 24 hours to surrender to the
26:05police and the following day mayor espinosa did surrender to pmp chief ronald batto de la rosa
26:13in a public speech on the 5th of august 2016 mr duterte stated the following in reference to
26:23mayor espinosa's surrender and this can be found at tab 129
26:52and on around the 5th of november 2016 a few months after mr duterte had him
26:58tracked down like a dog rolando espinosa was murdered while in detention in later provincial
27:06jail together with another man raul yap according to the pmp's official narrative of this incident
27:14there was a shootout between espinosa and yap and officers who attempted to serve search warrants
27:21on them while in prison by contrast the evidence demonstrates as set out in paragraphs 107 to 110
27:31of our brief that these men were murdered in their prison cells in a coordinated operation involving
27:39various state agents cctv was disabled guns were planted in their cells rewards were paid
27:49and as we see on the slide on now on our screens tab 48 of our of our list of
27:55materials both mr espinosa
27:59and mr gap were included in the prrd list amongst other individuals whose names have been blurred by the
28:12prosecution rolando espinosa in the upper row is recorded as a mayor and alleged to be a drug lord
28:20indicated as level four and raul yap in the lower row is also alleged to be a drug lord listed
28:29as level
28:29three the arrest of both men is noted and this is shown on the right side then separately it is
28:37noted
28:38that they were neutralized and in a further indication that to neutralize meant to kill
28:45as we see here it is only on the date of their death the 5th of november 2016 that they
28:53were noted
28:54as neutralized additionally in the tab of the prrd spreadsheet labeled high value targets now visible
29:03on our screens there was a photo of mayor espinosa he's the person in the yellow t-shirt in the
29:10second
29:11row on the far right side as you can see from the enlarged photo he's been crossed out in red
29:18which as a
29:20witness confirmed indicates that he had been killed and if your honors look closely at this list you'll see
29:30it appears to be the same list that mr duterte held during a speech on the second of february
29:372017 and for reference these are tabs 48 and 111 and your honors following these murders mr duterte
29:47continued his public threats for example on the 9th of february 2017 he stated publicly that mayors
29:57involved in illegal drugs should resign or face death we'll play an extract of this speech which is
30:05at tab 132 now
30:29mr duterte's message to the mayors could not be clearer if your name is in my list then i'll kill
30:35you
30:37and in case anyone watching this speech has any doubts about his intentions mr duterte goes on to
30:45comment on extra judicial killings and as he does so your honors will note the nonchalant casual manner
30:55in which he draws his finger across his throat let's play the video
31:00and in this opulent gilded presentation room the officials laugh along with their president
31:22while he boasts about his skills in extra judicial killing and outside on the streets of the
31:30philippines the bodies pile up the evidence from one data set shows that as at the date of this speech
31:399th of january 2017 almost 1500 people had been killed in mr duterte's so-called war on drugs and that's
31:48paragraph 73 of our brief a few months later and in april 2017 speech which i won't play but is
31:56a tab
31:56134.2 mr duterte called the deceased espinosa a quote son of a bitch and after citing multiple
32:06allegations of murders by the police he said he would pardon and reinstate any convicted police officer with a
32:14quote promotion to ranks higher end quote your honors i move now to the second part of my presentation
32:23the murders and attempted murders committed during the barangay clearance operations and these operations
32:31were covered by the first barrel of project tokan which we looked at earlier we'll briefly return to
32:39this document cmc 16 2016 and the overview of the two barrels as the slide on our screen shows the
32:50stated aim of project tokan just focusing on the first sentence was quote accelerating the drive
32:57against illegal drugs in affecting in affected barangays end quote and in practice your honors this meant
33:05murdering some of the most vulnerable members of filipino society as witnesses stated the poor
33:15were often targeted because they were the ones least likely to file complaints against the police
33:24to quote one witness on our next slide it states he stated it was said that the ones that we
33:33had to do
33:34the tokan operation on had to be poor those who do not have the means to file a complaint or
33:42to complain
33:45and similarly another witness stated the following based on what we've seen here in the philippines
33:54the people that were killed or could be killed were the poor people with no means simple people
34:01who were not able to file charges against them
34:07your honest project tokan operations were implemented across the philippines in a number of ways as set out
34:15in paragraph 75 of our brief and these operations frequently followed the same modus operandi as we also set out
34:24in paragraphs 33 and 114 of our brief which was as follows a target was identified often through the use
34:34of lists
34:34such as barangay lists or police station watch lists the target was then murdered in a police operation
34:43weapons drugs and money or a combination thereof were then planted at the crime scene
34:50and then the police reports were repeatedly falsified to legitimate the operations as acts of self-defense
35:01and in this context as witnesses explain the police often used the term nanlaban which translates to
35:09fighting back to describe incidents in which they supposedly shot a victim in self-defense
35:19and these reports were often almost identical in essence copy-paste reports in which victims were
35:27frequently blamed for their own deaths and finally unofficial rewards were paid
35:35you realize i'll briefly focus on a few of the count three incidents to illustrate this pattern
35:41on the day of his inauguration the 30th of june 2016 then president duterte held a speech in tondo manila
35:50and he directly addressed the public present including as we will see women and children
35:55for reference this is tab 127 let's please play the clip
35:59as we see
36:23as we see
36:30and the killing in tondo began almost immediately following this speech as we set out in our brief paragraphs 100
36:37to 101
36:39i'll focus now on and tondo is visible on our screens i'll focus now on incident 23 which also took
36:47place in tondo
36:48on or about the night of the 4th to the 5th of october 2016
36:55as your honors are aware the alleged victim of this incident 23 was benhamin visda
37:03and we'll shortly see a video which shows mr visda
37:08just before midnight in a vest in handcuffs forced onto a motorbike between two police officers and driven
37:17away
37:17and we see now mr visda being forced onto the motorbike
37:34between the two police officers and as he's been driven away we see women
37:40and children chasing after him no doubt terrified about what would happen next
37:48and around 20 minutes later your honors mr visda was dead
37:53shot multiple times in the head by police officers
37:57a witness described the scene and your honors the next slide will be
38:02a graphic image and for reference this is tab 77
38:13the witness stated quote the victim was lying on the street in handcuffs
38:20and was dead he'd been shot in the head seven or eight times end quote
38:28the official account of this incident was recorded in a police report known as the spot report
38:33dated the 5th of october 2016 this is tab 65
38:39and this report an extract of which is on the screen stated that mr visda was killed by the police
38:48in self-defense after he snatched the firearm of a police officer
38:54while he was on a motorbike while wearing handcuffs and he shot at the police but missed
39:02your honors is demonstrated by the evidence in paragraph 126 of our brief this narrative is false
39:10benjamin visda did not fight back he was murdered
39:15your nose project to kang was also carried out through
39:22one-time big time or otb otbt operations and these were large-scale high-intensity police operations
39:32that often resulted in multiple murders and one search operation took place in bullacham
39:39shown on our screens between the 15th and the 16th of august 2017
39:45in august 2017 the police made a press release regarding their recent operations which noted that 32
39:54people were killed by the police in simultaneous one-time big-time operations from the 15th to the
40:0116th of august 2017 this press release which can be found at tab 108 is visible on our screens
40:09in the headline we read quote 32 killed 107 arrested as firearms grenades and numerous illegal drugs were
40:18seized in bullacham pmp simultaneous big-time operations i'm focusing your honors on the paragraph
40:26at the bottom of the screen we see that the deaths of these 32 people were recorded as quote significant
40:34results end quote of the quote intensified campaign against illegal drugs otherwise known as project
40:41double barrel reloaded end quote and this was essentially a reinvigorated
40:46version of project double barrel as set out in our brief footnote 37
40:51and the press release goes on to name the 32 victims of this operation which included
40:58three victims who are victims of charged incidents 28 and 29 in this case who were murdered consistent
41:08with the pattern of the other incidents in camp three as set out in paragraphs 131 to 132 of our
41:16brief
41:18your honors 32 individuals killed by the police in bullacham in a 24-hour period you would imagine
41:28this would be a major national incident so how did mr duterte react to this shocking news
41:37let's hear what he said and for reference this is tab 147
42:04so that was the president's message in response to the death of 32 filipinos in a single day
42:10he essentially said to the police well done keep going let's kill another 32 every day
42:18and your honors in this context as you would expect the killings went on and on
42:25this phase of one-time big-time operations continued until around the 18th of august 2017 resulting
42:31in many more deaths as one witness stated quote it was hunting season a killing spree end quote and
42:40that's at tab 77 and on the evening of the 16th of august in the midst of this killing spree
42:48perhaps at the same time as mr duterte's speech in bullacham a 17 year old child named kian de la
42:55santos was murdered in kilua can the location of which is marked on our screens and this is charged
43:03incident 30. as usual the police claimed that kian de la santos shot at them and they were forced to
43:09shoot him dead in self-defense another victim blamed for his death as set out in our brief paragraph 133
43:19this account is contradicted by cctv footage showing police dragging the child across the ground and
43:27other evidence shows that after pleading for his life he was shot twice in the head the next slide
43:34is a graphic image your honors and that's tab 151
43:41on our screens we see the tragic image of the body of the 17 year old child kian de la
43:46santos
43:48and as noted in our brief paragraph 56 this brutal murder led to a massive public outcry across the
43:56philippines and in these circumstances exceptionally the direct perpetrators of these murders were
44:03prosecuted and they were imprisoned and in the face of this public outcry mr duterte was forced to
44:11temporarily withdraw police from drug operations from the 10th of october to the 4th of december 2017
44:19and this led to a reduction in the frequency of killings
44:22in announcing this temporary withdrawal mr duterte sarcastically stated that he hoped that this would
44:29satisfy quote bleeding hearts and the media end quote and in this way he publicly communicated that this
44:37was not a genuine effort to prevent crime but rather a temporary attempt to placate public criticism
44:46and less than two months later mr duterte decided to once again scale up operations he ordered the pmp
44:54back into the campaign and the killings once again intensified and your honors regrettably children
45:02continued to be the victims of these killings your honors will recall that at the very start of his
45:11presidency mr duterte gave a speech in tondo and we saw a part of it earlier this is tab 127
45:21on our list of
45:22materials and we'll watch another portion of that speech now
45:52if
45:54If someone's child is the addict's, then you be the one to kill.
46:00You want to say, it's worth pausing here, taking a step back and reflecting on what we are seeing and
46:08what we are hearing.
46:10This is the president of the Philippines, the commander in chief, the most powerful man in the Philippines.
46:18He's pointing directly at the crowd and he is telling them to kill someone else's child.
46:28Kill them, not because they are an alleged drug lord, not even an alleged criminal, but simply because they may
46:36have an addiction to drugs.
46:40And this is an example, perhaps, of what the defense described yesterday as Mr. Duterte speaking, quote, openly from the
46:47heart, sincerely and truthfully, end quote.
46:51And that's transcript 4, page 37, lines 15 to 16.
46:56And during an earlier part of the same speech, Mr. Duterte also boasted that during his presidency, funeral homes would
47:07make a lot of money.
47:09Let's play that clip.
47:51Ayan, sinasabi ko na sa iyan.
47:54So again, here's the president assuring funeral homes that if their business declines, he will, quote, tell the police, hurry
48:05up a little so people can make money from their business, end quote.
48:11And he stressed very clearly he was, quote, not joking.
48:17And as my friend said yesterday, transcript 4, page 30, lines 18 to 19, quote, for President Roddy, his word
48:26was his word and the people knew it, end quote.
48:31In this context, to conclude, I'll focus briefly on incidents 38 and 45.
48:40As your honours know, in the course of these incidents, which occurred during 2018, on two separate occasions, the police
48:50detained a child aged around 14 or 15 years old.
48:57On each occasion, the police wrapped the child's head in packing tape so no one could hear them scream and
49:06then strangled the child to death with wire.
49:10It's difficult to imagine a more terrifying end to two lives that had barely even begun.
49:18And these murdered children were then sold to funeral homes, who profited from their bodies, as explained in paragraphs 142
49:27and 150 of our brief.
49:32Your honours, dead children, police ensuring that funeral homes made money.
49:40Mr. Duterte indeed was not joking.
49:46Thank you, Your honours, this concludes my presentation, and now I'll hand over to Ms. Croft.
49:55Josh Motosh, thank you very much, Mr. Prosecutor, for your presentation.
50:03I think we are going to observe a break of 40 minutes up to 11.30 a.m.
50:13Thank you very much.
50:16Thank you very much.
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