A Facebook (FB) reel claimed that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has dismissed the charges of crimes against humanity against former president Rodrigo Duterte. This is false.
A reader sent a request to VERA Files’ Messenger Misinformation Tipline to verify a reel uploaded on May 8. The video was overlaid with text which read:
“Pagbasura ng kaso ni FPRRD officially nasa website na. Soon to be release (sic)
Ano kayo ngayon di pahiya sa buong mundo government official”
(Dismissal of FPRRD’s case is officially on the website already. Soon to be released.
What now, the government official is humiliated before the world.)
The video displayed a quote card from News5 and an image from GMA News Online taken during the March 20 hearing by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the legality of Duterte’s March 11 arrest.
The reel also contains a clip of Vice President Sara Duterte from the May 3 episode of GMA Network’s Saksi news program, in which she said:
“Ngayon ay nakalagay na officially sa ICC website ‘yung pagbabasura ng kaso dahil sa kawalan ng jurisdiction ng ICC and sa immediate release ni Pangulong Duterte.”
The clip was taken out of context. The vice president was referring to the appeal submitted on May 1 by Duterte’s lawyers and how the document can be accessed on the ICC website. The ICC has yet to rule on the appeal. The former president’s case was not junked by the ICC nor will he be released soon.
What was submitted on May 1 was a defense challenge contesting the ICC’s jurisdiction in the Philippines in view of the country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute that took effect on March 17, 2019.
The former president remains detained at Scheveningen, the ICC’s detention facility in The Hague, Netherlands, as he awaits the confirmation of charges hearing scheduled on Sept. 23. He was arrested on March 11 under a warrant coursed through the International Criminal Police Organization.
Despite his detention, Duterte leads the mayoral race in Davao City in the May 12 midterm polls, with 662,630 votes (87.91%) as of May 14. He is up against four other candidates, including Karlo Nograles, who was his Cabinet secretary from 2018 to 2022 and appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as chairperson of the Civil Service Commission on June 30, 2022.
The reel uploaded by an FB user has so far garnered over 40,200 reactions, 6,700 comments and 13,000 shares.
