Vice President Sara Duterte repeated her wrong claim that the arrest of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, last March was “kidnapping” or subjected to “extraordinary rendition” in law which is illegal.
STATEMENT
During the ‘Bring Duterte Home’ rally in Japan on Sept. 20, VP Duterte said:
“‘Yung pamilya n’ya hindi nila tinatanggap ‘yung pagkuha ng ICC, o paghold, pagdetain ng ICC kay dating pangulong Rodrigo Duterte; lagi nilang sinasabi ay kinidnap s’ya,’ eh ‘yun naman ang katotohanan. Nakita n’yo ‘yun sa opening statement ng abogado ni dating pangulo Rodrigo Duterte CES Medialdea. Sa first hearing pa lang sinabi na namin: kidnapping, ang tawag sa batas, extraordinary rendition.”
(His family does not accept the ICC’s taking, holding, or detaining of former president Rodrigo Duterte; they always say he was kidnapped, and that’s the truth. You saw that in the opening statement of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s lawyer, CES Medialdea. We already said in the first hearing: [it’s] kidnapping, which in law is called extraordinary rendition.)”
Source: Bombo Radyo Philippines, Bring Duterte Home Rally in Japan, Sept. 20, 2025, watch from 36:45 to 38:00
That was the vice president’s explanation of her family’s reaction to the ICC prosecutor’s rejection of the request for an interim release for her father.
FACT
Former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on March 11 by the Philippine National Police, acting on an ICC arrest warrant transmitted by the International Criminal Police Organization. He had legal counsel and was read his constitutional rights, as provided by law.
The nonprofit global organization Justice Initiative describes extraordinary rendition as the “transfer—without legal process—of a detainee to the custody of a foreign government for purposes of detention and interrogation.” The American Civil Liberties Union defines it as “the practice of kidnapping or capturing people and sending them to countries where they face a high risk of torture or abuse in interrogations.”
The VERA Files Fact Check Team has published several articles debunking and explaining the “Rodrigo Duterte-kidnapping” narrative.
BACKSTORY
On Jun 12, Rodrigo Duterte’s camp filed for an interim release from the ICC detention center in The Hague. The ICC prosecutor rejected this on Jun 23.
On Sept. 8, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I granted the request of Duterte’s lawyer to postpone the Sept. 23 confirmation of charges hearing for Duterte. The lawyers requested to “adjourn all legal proceedings in his case indefinitely,” citing the former president’s “cognitive impairment in multiple domains.”
Editor’s note: This fact check was produced with the help of a Communication Research student of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines as part of their internship at VERA Files.
