THE International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday said the Office of the Prosecutor has disclosed to the defense panel another batch of over 1,200 items of evidence in relation to the crimes against humanity case of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The prosecution is mandated to submit the evidence it has gathered to Duterte’s defense team in compliance with the order of the Pre-Trial Chamber 1, which is handling the case, and pursuant to the rules of the Rome Statute and the Rules of Procedures and Evidence.
“On 1 July 2025, the Prosecution disclosed to the Defense 1,253 items of evidence,” the ICC said, adding that the annexes to the documents are filed as “confidential because it includes information about the prosecution’s evidence, including sensitive witness information.”
The new set of evidence is divided into 10 packages, with some described as Davao Death Squad, Mayoral Period; Barangay Clearance Operations, Presidential Period; and – High-Value Target, Presidential Period.
The new batch of evidence submitted by the Office of the Prosecutor, currently headed by Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang, is the “12th communication of the disclosure of evidence” to Duterte’s legal team headed by Nicholas Kaufman.
The 80-year old Duterte is set to appear before the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber 1 on September 23, 2025 for the confirmation of the charges.
He first appeared before the chamber via video link on March 14, three days after he was arrested in Manila and transferred to the custody of the ICC in the Netherlands.
Duterte’s lawyers have filed a petition seeking the former president’s interim release, a move which has been opposed by the prosecution panel and the counsel representing the drug war victims.
Last week, the ICC rejected Duterte’s appeal to disqualify Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera from his case, saying there is no actual or reasonable basis for his apprehension that the two are biased against him.
“The plenary of judges considers that the judges acted, at all times, in accordance with the judicial duties assigned to them under the Statute,” the ICC said in rejecting Duterte’s request.
The Office of the Solicitor General said it is open to reconsidering its stance regarding the issue of the ICC’s jurisdiction over the country.
Duterte’s children have ran to the Supreme Court and questioned the validity of their father’s March 11 arrest, arguing that the ICC has lost its jurisdiction over the country after Manila’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute that established the tribunal.
The OSG, then headed by former Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, has refused to represent the government in the SC case as he agreed with the arguments raised by the Duterte children.
Guevarra has resigned from his post following a “bold” reset of the government that was announced after the May 12 midterm elections.
Solicitor General Darlene Berberabe said rejoining the ICC would not affect or muddle the case of Duterte.
“Maybe not,” Berberabe said in response to a question from Karmina Constantino in the latter’s Kuwentuhang Bayan.
Berberabe said she understood Guevarra’s stance, adding he was just “trying to come up with a consistent position.”
“Perhaps there were some political considerations or appearances that mattered at a certain point in time,” she said.
As to Duterte’s case before the SC, Berberabe stressed that it is not an impediment as far as the OSG is concerned.
“I am mindful that we defend the actions and the decisions of the Republic (which is) now represented by the president,” she said.
SARA ATTACK
Vice President Sara Duterte yesterday continued to attack the Marcos administration, saying the government should be spending funds to help Filipinos in conflict areas like Iran and Israel instead of using taxpayers’ money for the witnesses against her father.
“It’s lamentable because at first, they said there was no evidence (in the drug war) but they now have witnesses and they can pay for the travel but it’s saddening because they’re too slow in acting to help Filipinos caught in the fighting in Iran and Israel. That’s what we’re seeing and the people are seeing. What is really this administration’s priorities? It’s all just politicking, political attacks is the priority and not the people,” the Vice President, who visited her father again at the ICC detention facility in The Hague, told supporters in Filipino.
The Vice President was reacting to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla who earlier said the government will ensure the safety and security needs of the witnesses of the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs while they are still in the country.
Remulla late last month said the witnesses, who are under the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program (WPP), will be protected until they are turned over to the ICC.
The Vice President, who has been eliciting criticisms for her frequent “personal” foreign trips, said again that her father’s weight loss has been severe and he is now “skin and bones.”
“Sobrang payat niya na hindi niyo pa siya nakita na ganito ka-payat. Siguro nakita ko siyang ganitong kapayat noong binata pa siya and sa photo nung binata pa siya. ‘Yung kanyang braso ay kalahati lang ng braso ko, so ganyan siya kapayat (He is very skinny now and I have never seen him this thin. Maybe the only time I saw him this thin was when he was a young man and in a photo when he was younger. The size of his arm is only half of my arm, he’s that thin),” she said.
“But para sa akin lang (but to me), he looks good na payat siya kesa sa ‘yung ano malaki ang tiyan tapos parang (thin compared to when his belly is big and he seems) unhealthy tingnan (to look at) na mukhang nakakatakot para sa kanyang heart (and it seemed bad for his heart). So, I like him this way na medyo slim siya (that he is slimer),” added the younger Duterte.
NO LEGAL WEIGHT
At the House of Representatives, Rep. Terry Ridon (PL, Bicol Saro) said the Senate resolution calling for the elder Duterte’s return carries no legal weight because Philippine government has no authority to bring him home from detention.
“Well, I think we have to be very frank na there’s nothing that the Philippine government can do today to bring the former president back home,” Ridon, a lawyer and former Kabataan party-list lawmaker said. “Kasi ho talagang (ICC) na po ‘yung magpapasya kung makakauwi ba o hindi ang dating pangulo (It’s because it’s only the ICC that can decide if the former president can go home or not).”
Ridon was reacting to Sen. Robin Padilla’s filing of a resolution along with Senators Ronald dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go calling for the former president’s “immediate return” to the country.
“To be very clear, meron hong batayan bakit nasa ICC si dating Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte (there is a clear basis why former president Rodrigo Duterte is in the ICC). He is being made to answer for extrajudicial killings under the Duterte drug war. So mabigat po ‘yung paratang na ‘yun (That’s a serous allegation),” he said.
Rep. Leila de Lima (PL, ML), a former senator who was jailed for almost seven years for trumped-up drug charges under the Duterte administration, laughed off the filing of the resolution, calling it “pure political posturing with no legal bearing.”
“I think that’s just poliyical posturing becuase the government has no power to bring him home,” she told reporters in Filipino, stressing that the ICC will not be swayed by any resolution or political pressure.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said Duterte’s legal team should focus more on their defense especially amid the former leader’s admission of killing or ordering the killing of drug suspects when he was the president, instead of focusing on his supposed “unlawful” arrest.
Castro, in a briefing in Malacañang, said with the fees that the Dutertes are paying Kaufman, he should do better at defending his client than focusing on the presentation to the ICC of a Senate committee report about the arrest of the former president.
“He should concentrate on his defenses. He should concentrate on the allegations and admissions of the former president of his killings and that he ordered the killings of some people in relation to the war on drugs,” she said.
Castro added that submission of the Senate committee report could even negatively affect Duterte’s case.
“If the investigation is thoroughly examined, and the judges look into how it was carried out.. the ICC judges are probably not blind to see what the possible truth is,” she said.
Kaufaman has said that he believes the Senate committee report would prove that the arrest of his client was a form of “political maneuvering” designed to “politically cripple” the Duterte family. – With Wendell Vigilia and Jocelyn Reyes
