Former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea (bottom left)

Amateurish.

Deputy Majority Leader La Union 1st district Rep. Paolo Ortega said that's how former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea came off during the first hearing of his client, ex-president Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague when his "drama" was cast aside by the judge.

“Hindi pupuwede ang mga theatrics ni Medialdea sa ICC (Medialdea's theatrics won't work at the ICC). The judge saw right through his statements. It even made him look amateurish when he tried to invoke political persecution instead of addressing the charges directly,” Ortega said in a statement Sunday, March 16.

Medialdea--one of the handful of people who accompanied Duterte to The Hague in the Netherlands following his arrest in Manila last March 11--served as counsel for the former leader.

Duterte's first appearance in court took place Friday, March 14.

“Tama na ang budolterte o pambubudol sa tao. Hindi ito eleksyon, hindi ito propaganda war, at mas lalong hindi ito fake news. Huwag gawing drama ang isang seryosong paglilitis,” added the pro-Marcos congressman.

(Stop fooling the people. This is not an election, this is not a propaganda war, at most of all this isn't fake news. Let's not make a drama out of serious trial.)

Ortega says the ICC is focused on legal and factual issues, and that the political theatrics of Duterte’s camp have no place in such procedures.

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He said that the more Duterte’s allies attempt to shift the narrative away from the charges of crimes against humanity, the more they expose their lack of a real legal defense.

“No amount of political grandstanding can erase the fact that thousands were killed during the drug war without due process. The ICC is not a political arena – it is a court of law. Let Duterte’s lawyers prove his innocence there, not in press conferences,” said the La Union solon.

Duterte, 79, is facing a charge of crimes against humanity in connection with his administration’s bloody war on drugs.