Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s defense team includes a veteran international defense counsel as lead counsel.

Vice President Sara Duterte announced that British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman will be the lead counsel, while former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea and former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque would be part of the panel’s supporting lawyers.

Vice President Duterte has been serving as the family’s representative and has been meeting and coordinating with the former president’s defense panel.

Under the rules of the International Criminal Court, only the lead counsel is mandated to be an accredited lawyer in the international tribunal, while this requirement may be relaxed for supporting counsels.

Kaufman, who has a 34-year experience in international law, earned his Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Cambridge, and also studied at the Inns of Court Law School in London.

Kaufman’s notable high-profile clients include former Congo Vice President Jean Pierre Bemba and former Central African Republic (CAR) minister Maxime Mokom, who were also charged with crimes against humanity before the ICC.

Bemba — a former warlord-turned-politician in Africa — was detained in the Hague for 10 years and was convicted in 2016 after his militia committed murder and rape in CAR. While Bemba was initially sentenced to 18 years in prison, he was eventually freed in 2018 after his defense counsels won his appeal case before the ICC’s Appeals Chamber.

Mokom, on the other hand, was charged before the tribunal for being an anti-balaka militia leader, whose group allegedly targeted even Muslim civilians, including women and children. In 2023, the case against Mokom did not prosper as the ICC’s prosecutor eventually withdrew the charges, citing a supposed lack of evidence and witnesses.

Kaufman’s experience in defending high-ranking leaders before ICC magistrates may come in handy for Duterte.

Medialdea — Duterte’s underclassman in San Beda Law — was personally picked by the former president to be part of his legal team at the Hague.

Before being appointed as Duterte’s executive secretary in 2016, Medialdea worked in several law offices, where he handled various labor, litigation and immigration cases. He eventually established his own law firm, where Duterte is a client.

Even after Duterte’s presidency, Medialdea has often accompanied the Davaoeño politician in various events, including the former president’s recent trip to Hong Kong and his eventual arrest at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Medialdea was also with Duterte aboard the chartered flight that whisked the former president from Manila to the Hague after hours of detention at the Villamor Air Base.

The former executive secretary has framed Duterte’s arrest and detention in the Hague as a form of “kidnapping” and an “extrajudicial rendition.”

He has asked the ICC to reschedule Duterte’s first appearance before the international tribunal, but the court junked the motion, saying a postponement was unnecessary as the court only had to confirm Duterte’s identity and the charges filed against him.

Before being appointed as Duterte’s spokesperson, Roque worked as a lawyer specializing in public international law and human rights.

Roque gained public recognition for being the legal counsel of slain transgender Jennifer Laude, several victims of the Maguindanao Massacre, and some elderly Filipinas who have been seeking reparations from rape and abuse of Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Last year, Roque fled the Philippines after receiving multiple subpoenas from the House of Representatives, and after being charged with a qualified human trafficking case in connection with his ties to an illegal gambling operator based in Pampanga.

Roque repeatedly claimed that he had the right to travel as the Bureau of Immigration only placed him in their lookout bulletin instead of issuing a hold departure order against him.

The ICC is not expected to bar Roque from participating in Duterte’s trials even if a Philippine court issues an arrest warrant against him, Sarmiento said.

“The fact that he may have a pending or standing warrant of arrest in the Philippines, it does not affect his capacity or his skill or yung authority niya to represent former President Rodrigo Duterte,” the law school dean said.

“But there is a risk of the possibility of the Philippines government requesting for his extradition to the Philippine government because I believe we have an extradition treaty,” he said.

Vice President Duterte — the former President’s daughter — worked briefly in the Philippine Supreme Court after passing the bar examinations in 2006. In 2007, she returned to her hometown Davao City after she was elected as vice mayor.

The younger Duterte followed her lawyer-father’s footsteps, and eventually served as Davao City’s Mayor.

In 2022, she won the vice presidential race after mounting an alliance with now-President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. In mid-2024, she resigned from the Marcos Jr. Cabinet and has since been a vocal critic of the administration.

An impeachment case has been filed against her earlier this year, and its trial in the Philippine Senate is expected to begin in late July.

The Vice President earlier said that her father had instructed her to return to the Philippines as soon as possible, but she noted that she would stay in the Hague until their other relatives could secure visas and travel to the Netherlands to closely monitor the status of their detained patriarch.

Vice President Duterte clarified that she will be coordinating with her father’s legal team remotely once she returns to the Philippines.

The Philippine Constitution bars her from officially engaging in private practice during her tenure as vice president.

In 2018, the Philippines — then under Duterte’s rule — notified the ICC that it would withdraw as a signatory of the Rome Statute. Manila’s withdrawal formally took effect in 2019.