MANILA – The International Criminal Court (ICC) Office of the Prosecutor publicly released a less redacted document containing charges (DCC) against former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Unlike the previously released version, the less redacted one now identifies co-perpetrators in the commission of alleged crimes against humanity.
Based on the DCC and other official reports, eight individuals including two senators reportedly collaborated with Rodrigo Duterte to implement a “Common Plan” to “neutralize” alleged criminals through the “Davao Model” on a national scale.
Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa
Currently a senator in hiding due to a reported ICC arrest warrant, Dela Rosa served as Chief of Davao City Police from January 2012 until October 2013 wihen Duterte was Mayor of Davao. Under the Duterte presidency, he served as the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) from July 2016 to April 2018.
Dela Rosa issued Command Memorandum Circular No. 16-2016, also known as the Project “Double Barrel” on the day of Duterte’s inauguration which formalized the nationwide drug war. He justified the policy, saying the campaign was “really about killings” and urging crowds to “kill drug lords and burn their houses”.
Testimonies stated that Dela Rosa pressured individuals like Kerwin Espinosa to falsely implicate political rivals like Sen. Leila de Lima in the drug trade.
Read: How Sen. Bato Dela Rosa transformed Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ rhetoric into a national policy
Christopher “Bong” Go
Go was Duterte’s assistant during Duterte’s term as Davao Mayor. He served as Special Assistant to the President and Chief of the Presidential Management Staff from June 2016 to October 2018.
Within the Davao Death Squad (DDS) hierarchy, he was part of the core group to whom handlers reported before reaching Duterte. Investigations by the House Quad Committee linked him to the rewards system which provided financial incentives (ranging from P20,000 to P1 million pesos) for the “neutralization” of targets.
Just like Dela Rosa, Go is currently a member of the Philippine Senate.
Vitaliano Aguirre II
Aguirre is the legal counsel for the Davao Death Squad during Duterte’s time as Davao Mayor.
He served as Justice Secretary of Justice from 2016 until April 2018. This allowed him to exercise control over physical perpetrators within the “National Network”.
On August 23, 2016, he stated that the administration’s program was to do everything to stop drugs and that they “will choose to kill these drug lords.”
He dismissed and minimized reports of extrajudicial killings, and was tasked with controlling potential accountability efforts and ensuring that physical perpetrators of killings remained protected from prosecution.
Vicente Danao
Danao was the Chief of the Davao City Police from October 2013 to June 2016. Under the Duterte presidency, he held high-ranking roles including Counterintelligence Chief of the PNP Directorate for Intelligence and later Manila Police District Director from November 2018 to October 2019.
He was a member of the DDS hierarchy who reported directly to Duterte regarding the execution of targets in Davao. He reportedly said that criminal elements in Davao City need to be eliminated by any means necessary.
Camilo Cascolan
Cascolan was the Finance Chief of the Davao Region Police Office from 2011 to 2012. He served as Chief of the PNP Directorate for Operations from July 2016 to April 2018 and Regional Director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO). He also served as PNP Chief from September to November 2020.
Cascolan participated in the strategic planning meetings to expand the “Common Plan” nationwide and helped draft Project “Double Barrel”. He was responsible for directing police operations during the anti-illegal drugs campaign and publicly dismissed reports of excessive killings as “media hype”.
He died on November 24, 2023 reportedly due to a lingering illness. However, his siblings pointed to “extraordinary circumstances” surrounding his death. He was 59 years old.
Oscar Albayalde
He served as the Regional Director of the NCRPO from July 2016 to April 2018 and then as PNP Chief from April 2018 to October 2019.
He was responsible for directing the implementation of the anti-illegal drugs campaign. His tenure ended in resignation following allegations that he was involved in the “ninja cops” scandal where officers reportedly recycled and resold confiscated illegal drugs.
Dante Gierran
Gierran was Davao Regional Director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) from 2013 to 2016. Duterte subsequently appointed him Director of the NBI nationwide from 2016 to 2020.
He was appointed to his national role to exercise control over physical perpetrators of the Common Plan. He was allegedly involved in DDS killings during his time as a regional director in Davao.
Isidro Lapeña
Lapeña served as Davao City Police Chief in the late 1990s and was appointed Chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) from 2016 to 2017.
He was part of the initial group of “Davao Boys” who discussed replicating the Davao Model on a national scale. As PDEA Chief, he directed operations against “High Value Targets” and oversaw the verification of drug watch lists used to identify individuals for “neutralization”. (DAA)
Disclosure: Bulatlat used its AI-powered Bulatlat Archives for this article. Editors verified the information from ICC documents and other public records.
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