Lead defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman told the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday, February 26, that drug-related killings in the Philippines have continued under the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., citing data from the University of the Philippines' (UP) "Dahas Project."
Kaufman used the findings to challenge the focus of the prosecution’s case, which targets only former President Rodrigo Duterte, arguing that the violence linked to the Philippine drug war is not confined to Duterte’s tenure.
Kaufman highlighted statistics from the UP Dahas Project report, noting that of 342 killings recorded in the early years of the Marcos administration, 160 were carried out by state agents, and that the number of alleged drug-related killings increased from 342 to 362 between July 2023 and June 2024. He used these figures to argue that violence linked to the Philippine drug war was not unique to Duterte’s tenure and persisted beyond it, challenging the notion that Duterte alone should be held accountable before the ICC.
Kaufman’s defense also reiterated earlier claims that the prosecution has failed to present direct evidence connecting Duterte to specific killings, saying there is “no smoking gun” showing Duterte gave explicit orders to kill drug suspects. He stressed that not a single witness among the 49 incidents cited will state they obeyed a direct command from the former president to kill someone and called the prosecution’s evidence “circumstantial.”
The prosecution in the ICC alleges Duterte played a central role in a deadly nationwide anti-drug campaign, responsible for thousands of killings, and has sought to establish that these actions amounted to crimes against humanity through extrajudicial executions during his time as Davao City mayor and national president. Estimates presented in related ICC documents and human rights monitoring show that killings linked to anti-drug operations continued after Duterte’s term, with independent data indicating hundreds of deaths during the Marcos presidency as well.
