MANILA — A lawyer representing the victims of the drug war before the International Criminal Court on Wednesday denied accusations that she was "gathering dirt" against former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Speaking on ANC, ICC assistant to counsel Kristina Conti said the accusation was "absolutely false."

"I am not gathering dirt specifically against [former] President Duterte," Conti said.

"I was asked by the victims to figure out what happened to the killings and how to connect the killings to the statements [of Duterte]," she said.

A columnist has accused Conti without offering evidence that she was trying to smear Duterte's name in connection with his anti-drug campaign. 

"What I will admit is when we first submitted communication to the International Criminal Court, this was in August 2018, we submitted transcripts of the statements of the President with regard to the war on drugs. This is publicly available," Conti said.

"And if there is dirt at all it comes from Duterte's side. What we just did was put together all this information and make it available to the Office of the Prosecutor," she said.

Duterte is among the subjects of the ICC investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed during the implementation of his anti-narcotics drive which saw thousands of people with alleged drug links killed in police operations.

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Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019 after the Hague-based tribunal started probing allegations of human rights abuses committed during his drug war.

It launched a formal inquiry into Duterte's crackdown in September 2021, only to suspend it two months later after Manila said it was re-examining several hundred cases of drug operations that led to deaths at the hands of police, hitmen and vigilantes.

The ICC's chief prosecutor later asked to reopen the inquiry, and pre-trial judges at the court eventually gave the green light in late January 2023 -- a decision that Manila appealed shortly afterwards and lost.

The drug war has continued under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. even though he has pushed for more emphasis on prevention and rehabilitation.

— With a report from Agence France-Presse