- Former Davao journo nixes ICC prosecution over CCTV evidence
A FORMER journalist executed a notarized affidavit accusing the prosecution team of using “tampered” and “unauthorized” video footage during the opening statements in the current confirmation of charges for former President Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court Pre-Trial Chamber I.
Ben Jason Tesiorna formally filed an Affidavit of Denial in Davao City on Feb. 26, 2026, directly disputing the integrity of evidence presented by ICC Prosecutor Julian Nicholls.
In the sworn statement, Tesiorna asserted that he was the original owner and copyright holder of the video, which he recorded on his personal mobile phone on December 19, 2013, during a media showcase of Davao City’s Central 911.
Tesiorna said he never authorized the ICC to broadcast his footage. He claimed the video shown in court contained “unauthorized and illegal” English subtitles added to “ascribe voices” to certain individuals, including the former president, which were not in the original recording.
He also clarified that the “killing” shown in the CCTV footage was not happening in real-time during the 2013 showcase, as the prosecution allegedly implied.
Instead, it was a playback of a past, already-investigated incident used to demonstrate the system’s high-definition zoom capabilities.
‘Misleading the court’
The affidavit further claimed that Nicholls misrepresented the facts by making it appear that then-mayor Duterte failed to respond to a crime in progress.
“The ICC Prosecutor twisted the facts… it was just a showing of the capability of the CCTV,” Tesiorna’s affidavit read.
He added that his original, unedited video actually showed Duterte lamenting that he would likely be blamed for such killings.
Demand for apology and redress
Tesiorna demanded a public apology from the ICC Prosecution by Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. Failure to do so, he warned, would lead him to seek legal redress for cyberlibel, damages, and copyright infringement.
“Mr. Nicholls’ showing and broadcasting worldwide of my video has tainted my reputation and put me and my family in danger,” Tesiorna stated in the document.
On Monday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) began its hearing to confirm charges against Duterte. The hearing aims to determine if “substantial grounds” exist to try the 80-year-old former leader for crimes against humanity.
Central to the prosecution’s opening was a 2013 video involving the killing of three alleged thieves at the Agdao Public Market in Davao City. ICC prosecutors alleged that the footage showed Duterte “gloating” over the killings, suggesting the perpetrators—purported members of the “Davao Death Squad” (DDS)—acted with impunity under his orders.
However, veteran Davao journalist Ben Tesiorna, posting under his Facebook name Aeson Anroiset, contested this narrative.
Tesiorna, who was present at the time of the original recording, clarified that the context of the video had nothing to do with endorsing extrajudicial killings.
“I took that video myself and nowhere in the video was FPRRD [Duterte] gloating about the killing,” Tesiorna stated in a comment on a national media outlet’s report. “He was very proud of the high-tech CCTVs installed that can zoom into several meters—that was more than a decade ago.”
Tesiorna’s claim suggests that Duterte’s recorded reaction was directed at the city’s technological capabilities rather than the violence itself.
