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When lawyers become liars
The Statesman Siliguri
|March 25, 2025
It's been said that the first casualty of war is truth, and nowhere is this more evident than in the ongoing avalanche of fake news and disinformation that greeted former president Rodrigo Duterte's recent arrest and surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands.
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The spurious claims are meant to portray Duterte's arrest as "unjust and illegal," "a breach of Philippine laws and sovereignty," and "devoid of due process." Ironically, that last is the same injustice Duterte has been accused of in the extrajudicial killings of over 6,000 drug suspects, for which he now faces ICC trial for crimes against humanity.
What makes this orchestrated assault on truth even more ignominious is how two prominent lawyers—guardians of the law—led the fake news frenzy, with Raul Lambino claiming that the Supreme Court had issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on March 11 to stop the former chief executive's flight to The Hague.
Former Duterte executive secretary Salvador Medialdea followed this up with the barefaced lie that his client was not at the ICC detention center.
This story is from the March 25, 2025 edition of The Statesman Siliguri.
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