A video circulating on Facebook claims that the International Criminal Court has dismissed the cases against former president Rodrigo Duterte, supposedly because it can no longer prove the allegations and that the Philippines is no longer a member of the tribunal. This is false.
There are no official documents or credible reports confirming that the ICC has dismissed the crimes against humanity cases against Duterte. The video itself was clickbait; it did not mention any case dismissal. In an Oct. 23 decision, the ICC affirmed that it has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Philippines between Nov. 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019, when it was still a state party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC.
Published on Nov. 4, the video uploaded by a Facebook user featured a PTV News report with a superimposed text that read:
“ICC NA BUMITAW. Binasura na mga kaso ni Tatay Digong kc di totoo. Di NILA kayang maPatunayan gawa2x lang kc Paninira!!!
(ICC has backed off. The cases of Tatay Digong were junked because those were not true. They cannot prove it, it was all just made up to smear him)”
The misleading 75-second reel was captioned:
“ICC BUMITAW NA DI KAYANG PATUNAYAN ANG MGA KINASO KAY TATAY DIGONG NA DI TOTOO AT DI NAMAN MEMBER ANG PILIPINAS SA ICC!!!
(ICC HAS BACKED OFF BECAUSE THEY CAN’T PROVE THE CHARGES AGAINST TATAY DIGONG WHICH AREN’T TRUE, AND THE PHILIPPINES ISN’T A MEMBER OF THE ICC)”
A reverse image search shows that the news clip was taken from an old report, published on YouTube by PTV Philippines on July 28, 2023. The original video reported on the decision of the ICC rejecting the Philippine government’s appeal to stop the probe of the extrajudicial killings under Duterte’s drug war campaign.
The former president’s camp earlier argued that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the drug war cases because the investigation began in September 2021, two years after the Philippines had withdrawn from the Rome Statute.
However, in a document dated Oct. 23, the pre-trial chamber ruled that the ICC does have jurisdiction over crimes against humanity committed during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs campaign, which occurred when the Philippines was still a member of the court. The ICC also cited that its preliminary examination was launched in September 2018, before the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute took effect in March 2019.
The former president remains detained at the ICC detention center in The Hague, Netherlands, after the Pre-Trial Chamber 1 denied his request for interim release. In a 23-page document dated Oct. 10, the court noted that he retains a “political position and international contacts” that could enable him to abscond, and the rejection of his temporary release was to prevent him from committing the same crimes he is charged with.
As of writing, the false video posted by FB user Ed Salal Casbe (created July 5, 2019), has so far garnered 500,000 views, 4,400 shares and 1,800 comments.
