[The Slingshot] Is Duterte a flight risk?

Nicolas Kaufman’s exorbitant lawyer’s fees amount to 40,000 euros per month, according to a tell-all chismis by Harry Roque. That is equivalent, at current exchange rates, to about P2,590,960. For some reasons, the family of Rodrigo Duterte decided to ask the International Criminal Court to cover the legal fees for a team of five lawyers. The family gave no reason.

The catch, however, is that a lawyer who charges that much for a legal team would have to prove his legal prowess. And the prowess must lead to the desired outcome of the Duterte family: Bring him home!

Kaufman has to impress the entire DDS world that he deserves the steep legal fees, especially because he has lost all his challenges to the court (i.e., issue on the two judges, jurisdiction, etc.). He must not run out of tricks. 

Is the request for interim release to an undisclosed country Kaufman’s ultimate resort? If granted, it will still not mean freedom for Duterte. The undisclosed country, acting as his steward, will have to guarantee his appearances in court in The Hague. Travel to the Philippines will not be part of the deal. To disappoint his screaming DDS banshees, it will not result in “Bring him home.”

Kaufman assured the court that Duterte will not be a flight risk. Is that true?

Before his arrest, Duterte had traveled from Davao City to Manila and Hongkong. The touring party of more than 10 was huge: common-law wife Cielito Avanceña, their daughter Veronica, Mr. and Mrs. Salvador Medialdea, and former military generals and their wives; Sara Duterte later joined them, as did Salvador Panelo. How did they get there — free tickets from Cathay Pacific?

Kaufman cites Duterte’s age. He was 79 when he made that trip to Hongkong; he turned 80 a few days later in jail. But what on earth is Kaufman thinking? That we had forgotten Duterte had just made that trip to Hongkong, including visits to shopping malls? He spoke at a Kingdom of Jesus Christ rally and he was by every means fit. And cursing.

Age is definitely out of the question. It does not prevent him from traveling. Kaufman loses on that guarantee. Duterte can still be a flight risk.

Legal specialists tell us how to understand flight risk factors. In the United States for example, there have been countless cases of the accused escaping even their bail hearings. Disclaimer: this writer is neither a lawyer nor a law expert.

First, there is the severity of the charges. In Duterte’s case, final conviction by the ICC will mete him at least 30 years imprisonment. If that happens, his only chance of coming home will be in a coffin. Kaufman and the Duterte family thus bring up the age or humanitarian card for sympathy. 

But the only way they can bring him home is through an acquittal. With the mounting numbers of evidence presented by the prosecution to the three judges of the pre-trial chamber, an acquittal would be a fantasy. Recall that there are now at least two (or more) of former Davao Death Squad assassins admitted in the Witness Protection Program in The Hague. 

Why would the court protect them if it found their testimonies weak? Why would the court protect them if it averred that their lives are not in danger? Because the truth is that these assassins/whistleblowers are better dead in the Philippines.

On the basis, thus, of severity of charges, Duterte is a flight risk.

A second factor is the quality of community ties Duterte has. That will immediately bring to mind the endless demonstrations of his DDS followers in ICC grounds in The Hague. Dutch residents have complained of noise, budots, garbage, and knocks from strangers on their doors because DDS need to pee. They are Filipinos but they are Filipino lowlifes, not sorry for the harshness. If these are the kind of people who will embrace back a free man Duterte, one does not need to guess what limits of the law they will break.

If he lands in Davao City, the more he will get hidden there. The city teems with ignorant voters who will die for the Dutertes. It even took several agonizing days for the valiant police general Nicolas Torre III to finally locate the fugitive Apollo Quiboloy. Davao City has many hidden compartments. Who would have the balls to squeal to authorities that Duterte is in the vicinity? Find me one.

Even judges of some of the city’s courts are beholden to Duterte. The city prosecutor was his appointee, a Honeylet family member. Let’s not kid ourselves that the Dutertes are finished. They control Davao City by its neck. 

On the basis of the kind of community ties Duterte keeps, he is unquestionably a flight risk.

Yet Kaufman omits one factor, either by omission or commission that makes Duterte a dangerous flight risk. Money.

Since his arrest, family members have been making the trip to Rotterdam Den Haag airport by turns. Sara herself said so. After her first trip, it was the Duterte brother Bong’s turn to “keep watch.” Before him was the turn of the son Paolo, the one linked to drugs trading at the ports of Davao City. Then when it was Sara’s birthday, she returned with her younger brother Baste and their mother Elizabeth. Presently, it is Honeylet’s turn.

And in case you missed it — Salvador Medialdea appears to have remained in The Hague since escorting Duterte in his arrest. Who pays for his Dutch lodgings? Bertola Medialdea?

Surely the family has all the money to splurge on aviation fuel. And they do not seem to be running out of gas. Where does all that money come from? Drugs? China? Confidential and intelligence funds? Whatever the source, the Dutertes have a hidden wealth. All the 7-11 branches of Davao City, or Honeylet’s Mr. Donuts, are no matches to that kind of travel sprees.

Is he a flight risk? Without doubt he has the financial means to escape from his steward country. The Duterte family is filthy rich, the reason why Sara is moving heaven and earth to avoid her impeachment trial. Because for certain, all their bank accounts in peso and US dollars will be opened and exposed by order of the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

In fact, many have questioned — has Duterte money greased the loyalties of the senators in the Escudero Senate? We can be sure that the five who voted not to remand the Articles of Impeachment are clean. Can we say the same thing of the 18?

There is one more factor that is key. The Dutertes have never been successfully charged in court. They eat impunity for breakfast. How do they do that? Perhaps they pay their way to the courts. Or they kill. They still have assassins to do their bidding.

It sickens their larger-than-life pride that the ICC case is putting them to shame before the world. Because yes, the non-DDS world jumped with glee when he was arrested and brought to the Netherlands. 

No one but no one punctures a Duterte ego. It just isn’t done. – Rappler.com