Lawyer Jude Josue Sabio on Tuesday, withdrew the complaint he filed against President Rodrigo Duterte in the International Criminal Court (ICC) related to Duterte’s war on drugs.
Sabio said on a 28-page sworn statement he would mail and submit personally to ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that the complaint should be “set aside” and “trashed” because it is only part of the Liberal Party’s “political propaganda.”
The lawyer who filed before the court at the Hague, Netherlands also said he signed and sworn an affidavit statement saying he did not approve what the Duterte’s opposition personalities and former senator Antonio Trillanes IV have done to besmirch the President’s honor.
He also said he refused to be used as a tool Duterte’s critics led by Trillanes.
“I fervently request that it be expunged or erased from the record and that it should not be used in any way in the ongoing preliminary examination,” Sabio said in a 28-page letter addressed to ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
Sabio also said earlier that he is willing to testify against Trillanes in a sedition case the president’s critic is facing.
Sabio had a falling out with Trillanes over told the ICC prosecutor the discredited “Bikoy” videos and detained Sen. Leila de Lima.
Also read: De Lima marks 1000th day in detention
Lawyer receives ‘pittance’ as payment from opposition to file ICC complaint Duterte
Sabio also admitted that the “pittance” he allegedly received as payment from the opposition party motivated his turnaround.
“I would be given a pittance when they needed me for the political propaganda, and then later, I would be told that there was no more budget due to financial constraints,” he said.
“It was a pattern that was all too obvious to me, which made me so skeptical about their engagement of me for alias ‘Bikoy,’” Sabio added.