Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte claimed on Sept. 27 that former senator Antonio Trillanes IV was sent by the Philippine government to conduct a welfare check on former president Rodrigo Duterte at his detention unit in The Netherlands. This is false.
STATEMENT
In a Facebook post, Duterte claimed:
“Si Trililing pala ang pinadala ng mga BANGAG para mag welfare check kay PRRD??Baka magkalat ka ng virus mo dyan at di ka pa naman na inject ng anti rabies shot mo, Oo nga pala strict ang Netherlands siguradong dinaan ka muna sa Quarantine ng mga hayop! Kasama mo rin ba ang TUTA mong si Lascañas?”
([Trillanes] was sent by the BANGAGs to conduct a welfare check on PRRD?? You might spread your virus there since you haven’t had your anti-rabies shot. Oh, yes, The Netherlands is strict, for sure, you were first asked to pass through the quarantine for animals! Are you with your puppy, Lascañas?).”
Source: Congressman Paolo “Pulong” Duterte, Si Trililing pala ang pinadala ng mga BANGAG para mag welfare check kay PRRD??…, Sept. 27, 2025
Rep. Duterte was referring to self-confessed Davao Death Squad police hitman Arturo Lascañas, a key witness in the investigation of the International Criminal Court on the extrajudicial killings in Davao while the older Duterte was city mayor.
FACT
The official website of the ICC posted a press release on the Tenth Seminar on Cooperation last Sept. 19 with a group photo of the 32 delegates, including Trillanes. The event, with the theme “Effective Justice through Efficient Cooperation,” was held on Sept. 16 to 18 at the international tribunal’s headquarters in The Hague.
The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Sept. 25 that embassy officials visited former president Rodrigo Duterte for a welfare check at the Scheveningen prison in The Hague.
“This is in line with [the embassy’s] functions under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and relevant Philippine Laws to protect the welfare of all Filipinos. This is a duty of all Philippine Foreign Service Posts and is no different from what the DFA does for other Filipino citizens who are in detention abroad,” the DFA explained in a statement.
Trillanes is neither a diplomat nor is he connected with the Philippine embassy in The Netherlands. The ICC allows only Duterte’s lawyers, his immediate family members and diplomatic officials to see the former president at the detention facility.
In the conference Trillanes attended, states where ICC investigations are ongoing were invited to represent their respective countries and discuss cooperation efforts. It was open to ICC member states and six countries that are not parties to the Rome Statute.
Rep. Duterte’s claim was posted on his FB account five days after formal charges against his 80-year-old father were made public on Sept. 22 on the ICC website.
The Philippines ceased to be a state party to the ICC following former president Duterte’s withdrawal of its membership from the Rome Statute in March 2019.
Editor’s note: This fact check was produced with the help of a journalism student of the University of Santo Tomas as part of their internship at VERA Files.
