DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 25 February) – Detained former President Rodrigo R. Duterte was involved in the preparation of the “narco list” containing names of high-value targets, including politicians and government officials, who were marked for execution by his death squad, trial lawyers alleged during the second day of the confirmation of charges hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Lawyer Edward Jeremy said Duterte, described as the “architect” of his administration’s bloody “war on drugs,” had publicly admitted to his direct involvement in preparing the drug list, and even flaunted a copy of this list during his public appearances.

He explained that the list, stored in “Excel-style spreadsheets,” contained photos of “various persons, designated, alleged to be high-value targets” from different regions of the country.

“At the bottom of this list are a series of different tabs… and as we see, they include different regions of the Philippines, and within these tabs are lists of names, identifying information of a person alleged to be a high-value target,” he said.

According to him, those persons on the list, which he referred to as “Duterte list” or “PRRD list,” were assigned different levels.

He said the list was used by police in their drug operations, adding officers were subsequently rewarded for every target killed.

The trial lawyer referred to Duterte’s narco list as “the dead list,” noting that most of the individuals named were eventually killed.

“These rewards were not part of the regular PNP (Philippine National Police) budget but were provided by Mr. Duterte. He also publicly offered perpetrators rewards for killing,” he said.

The former President, arrested on March 11, 2025 in Manila, was flown that evening to The Hague in the Netherlands, where the ICC is based.

He is facing three counts of murder as crimes against humanity. He has been accused of being an indirect co-perpetrator in extrajudicial killings linked to his anti-drug campaign that allegedly took place between November 1, 2011, and March 16, 2019, during his tenure as mayor of Davao City and later as President of the Philippines.

The timeframe covered the period when the Philippines was still a member of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty.

Jeremy explained that level 1 targets included government employees, former officials of the PNP, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), street-level pushers, retailers with warrants of arrest, and barangay councilors.

Level 2 targets, he said, comprised barangay chairmen, sub-distributors or protectors, non-officer personnel from the PNP, AFP, PDEA, BJMP, and BuCor, leaders of drug groups, and heads of government offices.

Jeremy said level 3 targets were high-value target drug pushers, high-ranking government officials, municipal or city officials, judicial officials who were protectors, and Integrated Bar of the Philippines members, distributors and protectors, as well as PNP, AFP, PDEA, BJMP, and BuCor officials.

The level 4 targets comprised wholesalers, financiers, and high-ranking officials of the PNP and the AFP, he added.

During the hearing, Jeremy also presented several video clips of Duterte taken while he was still in office, in which the former President admitted he was behind the making of the list.

“I ordered the validation. I’m the one reading it, and I am the sole person responsible for this all,” Duterte was quoted in one clip.

Jeremy added that, aside from promising rewards for the killing of targets, Duterte also assured police prosecuting his drug war that he would help them escape liability and even offered promotions.

“If he pulls a gun, kill him. If he doesn’t pull anything, kill him, too. So it will be over instead of losing the gun. I will take care of you. Mark this in your hearts: For as long as I am the President, nobody but nobody. No military man or policeman will go to prison because they performed their duties well. I will be the one to go to jail. Just say that is the mayor’s order,” Duterte was quoted in another clip.

The lawyer also brought up the case of late Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa, who was on Duterte’s list as a “level 4 target.” Duterte accused Espinosa and another drug suspect, Raul Yap, of being involved in the illegal drug trade.

Espinosa and Yap were killed while in detention at Leyte Provincial Jail on November 5, 2016.

“According to the PNP’s official narrative of this incident, there was a shootout between Espinosa and Yap, with officers who attempted to serve search warrants on them while in prison. But evidence demonstrates that the men were murdered in their prison cells in a coordinated approach involving state agents – CCTVs were disabled, guns were planted in their cells, and rewards were paid,” he said.

Julian Nichols, senior trial lawyer, described Duterte as the architect of the war on drugs and narrated how the Davao Death Squad (DDS) was established when he was still mayor of Davao.

“One witness described his initiation into the DDS. He described it happening in 1988 at a dinner meeting at a hotel in Davao City. This was a huge deal for this witness. I mean, it was almost unimaginable being invited to a dinner in a hotel in the center of Davao, where he’s gonna meet the mayor,” he said.

He said Duterte provided DDS members, or “his paid killers,” with guns and ammunition.

“Mr. Duterte didn’t say anything about self-defense. He then provided his death squad members with the guns, ammunition, and again in a festive way, a basket was passed around filled with handguns, and new members could pull one out like getting a prize, so that they would have a weapon for their new job,” he said.

He said a witness recalled “Duterte was happy at this dinner meeting. He was laughing, and he even sprayed a bottle of champagne to celebrate.”

He said the DDS members would ask Duterte, while he was mayor of Davao, for his clearance before they would execute a target.

“Under its architect, Mr. Duterte, victims were targeted in one of two ways. Sometimes, an informant will provide information on the target, and the handler would then get clearance from Mr. Duterte through one of the co-perpetrators we saw earlier to kill the target,” he said.

Nichols said Duterte “would sometimes give the target’s name, would say who to kill, which would be communicated by one of the co-perpetrators to a handler, and then down to the DDS member tasked with actually carrying out the killing.”

“By whichever way it took place, Duterte’s clearance, his approval, was required. His permission was required for DDS members to conduct these murders. Several witnesses confirm that,” he said.

He said Duterte admitted his role in the DDS during the inquiry by the Senate blue ribbon committee in 2024.

“That is four times three of them under oath that he admitted having a death squad in Davao, including saying he is the death squad. That is not hyperbole,” he said. (Antonio L. Colina/MindaNews)