A Facebook (FB) reel claimed that United States President Donald Trump had said people who would help the International Criminal Court (ICC), such as former senator Leila De Lima, would be sanctioned. This is false.
The FB reel published on Feb. 16 was originally uploaded on Feb. 14 in an 18-minute episode of Spox Hour, a YouTube program of former Palace spokesperson Harry Roque.
In the video, Roque then pleaded to Trump to include De Lima and former senator AntonioTrillanes IV in the sanction, asserting they are helping the ICC in the investigation of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. He said:
“Sinabi pa ni president Trump lahat ng mga tao na makikipagtulungan sa ICC gaya ni Leila de Lima isa-sanction din ng America. President Trump paki-sanction na si Leila de Lima dahil siya talaga ang nakikipagtulungan at saka si Trililing [Trillanes] sa ICC. Papadala namin lahat ng address nila at mga detalye sa inyo ng ‘yan ay ma-sanction niyo na.”
Trump’s executive order did not mention De Lima or Trillanes.
Neither was the EO related to the ICC’s investigation of Duterte’s drug war and the people who may have helped the international court investigate. Based on its provisions, it only sanctions ICC staff and any foreign person who has made “transgressions” against the US and Israel.
The court’s arrest warrant issued on Nov. 21, 2024 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fueled Trump’s economic sanction against the ICC. In the executive order released on Feb. 6, 2025, he described Israel as a “close ally,” and the sanction came about due to the court’s “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting America and Israel.
Roque uploaded the video on Spox Hour a week after the release of Trump’s executive order. In the video, he mentioned that the economic sanction impeded the plan of the Marcoses to stay in power, implying that the sanction freed Duterte from the threat of prosecution by the ICC.
The reel published on Roque’s FB account “Harry Roque” garnered 104K views, 770 shares, 339 comments and 4.7k reactions. The full episode published on FB gathered 41K views, 56 comments and 702 reactions, while the full episode uploaded on YouTube collected around 27K views, 1.9K likes and 140 comments.
