Will Duterte be asked to testify against himself?

UNDER the Bill of Rights, no person may be compelled to testify against himself. This seems to be the problem confronting former president Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, where he is facing charges of crimes against humanity in connection with his bloody antidrug war when he was president. As the court prepares to confirm the charges against him on Sept. 23, many seem to believe that all the prosecution has to do is to quote to him his own words about his being responsible for all the acts of the national police. Personally, I don't think it's going to be as simple as that, but it is how the political propaganda appears to frame his case.

I believe the court will have to rule whether Duterte's reported statements constitute acceptable evidence of his alleged crime, or need to be supported by independent evidence of his alleged crime. My own impression is that the competent authority will have to determine whether his claim of having ordered all the police operations that resulted in the reported killing of so many drug users is the unvarnished truth or is merely a storyteller's yarn meant to impress an impressionable audience.

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