Circulating on Facebook is a claim that 57 drug war charges against former president Rodrigo Duterte were dismissed by the International Criminal Court. This is false.
Published on Oct. 22 by a notorious hoax page, the thumbnail carried this headline:
“Dismiss na ang 57 Drug war charges ni PRRD sa ICC dahil sa kasinungalingan ni Marcos! (The 57 drug war charges against PRRD at the ICC have been dismissed because of Marcos’s lies.)
ICC prosecutors only redacted one alleged killing incident involving a suspect identified as a “high-value target.”
The judges ruled that the incident, listed as Incident 57 under the released court filing dated Oct. 20, is not covered under the time frame of the crimes against humanity case before the ICC. The post used the figure “57” incorrectly to refer to the total number of dismissed charges against Duterte.
The ICC has charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, confirmed by the Pre-Trial Chamber I.
These are the murders in Davao City between 2013 and 2016, killings involving high-value targets between 2016 and 2017, and murder and attempted murder in barangay clearance operations between 2016 and 2018.
The former president will stand trial starting on Nov. 30.
The misleading post circulated after the prosecution amended its trial brief, where it deleted Incident 57.
As of writing, the post published by FB page Makata ng Bayan (created April 13, 2020) have garnered 4,400 reactions; 582 comments; and 638 shares.
