The Pre-Trial Chamber 1 of the International Criminal Court “unanimously confirmed” Thursday all charges of crimes against humanity against former president Rodrigo Duterte, a decision that commits the 81-year-old former leader to a full trial in The Hague.
This development is considered a historic turning point for international justice as it marks the first time a former head of state from Southeast Asia will be prosecuted by the international tribunal.
The ruling was released less than 24 hours after the ICC Appeals Chamber affirmed its jurisdiction over the charges against Duterte, dismissing the appeals from the former president’s defense team, who had long argued that the Philippines’ withdrawal in 2019 from the Rome Statute stripped the ICC of its authority. The Appeals Chamber, however, rejected those arguments, reiterating that the court retains jurisdiction over crimes committed while the Philippines was still a member.
Lawyers Joel R. Butuyan and Gilbert T. Andres, ICC-listed counsels and Philippine-based common legal representatives of the victims, said the Pre-Trial Chamber 1’sruling is a “triumph of [the victims’] right, under international law, to truth and justice for their murdered loved ones.”
“The victims see the confirmation of all three counts of charges against Mr. Duterte as the answer to their prayers for justice,” they said in a joint statement.
“The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber 1 decision sends a strong message to the international community of states that the international criminal justice system is working to exact criminal accountability even against a former President such as the accused Mr. Duterte. The victims expectantly await with renewed hope the trial proceedings against Mr. Duterte.”
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, the first one to initiate the complaint against Duterte at the ICC, said: “Ako po ay natutuwa para sa mga libu-libong pamilya ng mga biktima ng EJKs. Isang malaking hakbang na naman ito para sa pagkamit ng matagal na nating minimithi na hustisya. Ang susunod naman na aantabayan natin ay ang pagsimula ng trial ni Duterte.”
The confirmed charges encompass a decade-long period from Nov. 1, 2011, when the Philippines became a state party to the ICC, to March 16, 2019, when the country’s withdrawal from the treaty took effect under Duterte’s presidency.
In the April 23 ruling, the three-member Pre-Trial Chamber 1 led by Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc said in a 50-page redacted version of the ruling that it found “substantial grounds to believe” that Duterte is criminally responsible for a “widespread and systematic attack” against the civilian population in the Philippines.
The case against Duterte, which the PTC judges found sufficiently backed by evidence to proceed to trial, is categorized into three counts:
Count 1 – Murders of at least the 19 victims committed in and around Davao City by the Davao Death Squad during Duterte’s tenure as mayor
Count 2 – The targeted killings of “high-value targets” during his presidency, involving 14 victims
Count 3 – Murders and attempted murders of at least the 45 victims conducted during “barangay clearance operations, commonly known as Tokhang, during Duterte’s presidency.
The judges emphasized that the evidence presented during the confirmation of charges hearings in late February that Duterte exercised “effective control” over the execution of a state-sanctioned policy that directly incentivized and facilitated the extrajudicial killings of thousands of suspected drug users.
The PTC said Duterte is “individually criminally responsible” pursuant to article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute for the crimes charged in Counts 1 to 3 as he committed them as an indirect co-perpetrator.
At least eight other officials were named as co-perpetrators with whom he shared a common plan or agreement to “neutralize” alleged criminals, including those perceived or alleged to be associated with drug use, sale or production, through violent crimes including murder. They are:
1.Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa – chief of Davao City Police (January 2012-October 2013) when Duterte was mayor; chief of the
Philippine National Police (July 2016-April 2018) during his presidency;
- Vicente Danao – mayoral period: chief of Davao City Police (October 2013-June 2016); presidential period: Counterintelligence chief, PNP Directorate for Intelligence in PNP National Headquarters (July 2016-February 2017); Chief of Directorial Staff and then deputy director for Operations, PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (February 2017-November 2018); Manila Police District director (November 2018-October 2019);
- Camilo Cascolan – mayoral period: finance chief of Davao Region Police Office (2011-2012); presidential period: chief of the PNP Directorate for Operations (July 2016-April 2018); regional director of the National Capital Region Police Office (April-May 2018); chief of staff in the PNP Office of the Chief of Directorial Staff (September 2018-October 2019);
- Oscar Albayalde – joined the Common Plan only in the presidential period: regional director of the NCRPO (July 2016-April 2018); chief of the PNP (April 2018-October 2019);
- Sen. Christopher Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go – mayoral period: Duterte’s personal aide and special assistant (1998-2016); presidential period: Duterte’s special assistant and chief of the Presidential Managerial Staff (June 2016-October 2018);
- Dante Gierran – mayoral period: Davao regional director of the National Bureau of Investigation (2013–2016); presidential period: director of the NBI (2016-2020);
- Isidro Lapena – prior to the charged period: Davao City Police chief (1996-1998); presidential period: chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (2016-2017);
- Vitaliano Aguirre – mayoral period: lawyer for Duterte and other members of the Davao Death Squad; presidential period: secretary of Justice (July 2016-April 2018); and
- other members of the PNP and high-ranking government officials.
With the jurisdictional hurdles cleared and the charges now confirmed, the case enters a critical new phase: trial.
The dispositive portion of the decision says the PTC “commits Mr Duterte to a Trial Chamber for trial on the charges as confirmed;” and “orders the Registrar to transmit this decision on the confirmation of charges and the record of these proceedings to the presidency.”
The ICC presidency will then designate a new panel of three judges to oversee the trial. Once the Trial Chamber is formed, it will set the trial schedule, which is expected to take years given the volume of evidence, including testimonies from hundreds of victims. So far, over 500 victims have already been granted the right to participate in the proceedings.
For now, Duterte remains in the ICC detention facility in Scheveningen.
Duterte,’s lead counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, in a statement released through the pro-Duterte vblog, Alvin and Tourism, said, “The Pre Trial Chamber found that the crucial word ‘neutralise’, used to define a so-called State or organisational policy, was understood by those involved in the operations to mean to ‘kill’. This is hardly surprising when the whole of the Prosecution’s case, as pasted into the concluding paragraphs of the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision, is based on the uncorroborated statements of vicious self-confessed murderers acting as cooperating witnesses. The credibility of these witnesses was never assessed at confirmation. They will now be excused prosecution and will most likely be rehoused with new identities at considerable cost to the international community funding the activities of the Office of the Prosecutor.
“At trial, the Defence will prove that the aforementioned “State policy” is a complete fiction. The Defence will also show that the evidence of very same criminal witnesses, so gleefully peddled by the former President’s many detractors, has zero weight”
Kristina Conti, ICC assistant to counsel is overjoyed: “Walang pagsidlang tuwa at pasasalamat sa ICC sa mabilis at pulidong mga desisyon. Ang magkasunod na desisyon patungkol sa jurisdiction at confirmation of charges ay nagbibigay-daan sa paglilitis ni Rodrigo Duterte sa kasong crimes against humanity. Tama ang pasya natin na dumulog at magreklamo sa ICC.
“Dapat maghanda ang mga biktima ngayon para sa kanilang partisipasyon. Dapat itulak ang mabilis na paglilitis para malaman na ang buong katotohanan sa malagim na mga pangyayari noong nakaupo ang mga Duterte sa Davao, at kalaunan sa Malacañang.”
Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, a human rights organization, said “As we all should be jubilant and inspired by this recent win for justice, let us also take this occasion to reinvigorate our struggle for genuine justice and peace in our country, so that fascists like Duterte and the oppressive system that they uphold and represent are made fully accountable and defeated.
(With inputs from Janna Millenas and Ellen Tordesillas)
