THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The proposal of former president Rodrigo Duterte's defense team for a stricter policy regarding the identity documents that victims can submit to the International Criminal Court (ICC) has hit a snag as ICC-accredited lawyer Atty. Joel Butuyan tagged the proposal as a “grave injustice twice over.”

Prior to this, Duterte’s defense lawyers led by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, questioned a proposal that would enable alleged drug war victims to testify in his client's trial.

Duterte’s lead defense counsel disclosed that he was advocating for a stricter policy regarding the identity documents that victims can submit by limiting acceptable proof of identity to a national ID or a current Philippine passport in a bid to streamline the proceedings at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

But Butuyan is opposing this, reiterating that depriving drug war victims of their right to participate in the case against former President Rodrigo Duterte merely due to their lack of identification documents is a “grave injustice.”

The Center for International Law (Center Law) criticized the proposed restrictions by Duterte’s defense team on the type of IDs that should be accepted by the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) I to verify the identity of the victims, saying these “come from someone who is totally ignorant” of the kind of people who were killed in the bloody war on drugs.

Still, Kaufman cited that “limiting the range of identity documents enhances the reliability of the identity verification process and significantly reduces the risk of fraud.”

In addition, the British-Israeli barrister pointed out that the use of varied and insufficiently verified identity documents “could lead to misidentification, double-counting and the inclusion of false victims,” and trigger “unnecessary and time-consuming litigation.”

But Butuyan was adamant in his opposition as he described “the kind of IDs being demanded by Mr. Kaufman are documents that are badges of wealth and privilege in the Philippines.”

“They are unavailable to victims who wallow in poverty, and who constitute the overwhelming number of the people killed by his client. The victims’ families have already lost loved ones. For them to be refused recognition as victims of the murderous Mr. Duterte, because of their lack of government-issued IDs, is to make them suffer injustice (once again),” he asserted.

Human rights lawyer Kristina Conti, who has been assisting the victims in the ICC proceedings, likewise reacted, stressing that the camp of Duterte was “antipoor” and “out of touch” to even suggest such a rule for the application of victims.

“Limiting the list of possible proofs of identity only discourages victims unnecessarily, almost heartlessly. We will, obviously, make a rejoinder supporting the initial proposals of the Victims Participation and Reparations Section (under the ICC Registry),” she said.