Try
Lawyer Joel Butuyan's delivery of his opening remarks was interrupted to observe the ICC's mandatory 30-minute break between the first and second sessions of the Feb. 23 hearing.
Joel Butuyan: Truth is the antidote to the virus of impunity, Your Honors. The victims dread a future where charges are not confirmed. It will mean that the virus of impunity will continue to spread and infect many more.
A YouTube video is claiming that former president Rodrigo Duterte will be released early from detention under the International Criminal Court after the Supreme Court dismissed a case against him. This is false.
Is Duterte too frail to remember, or simply too defiant to face the music? Even his own prosecutor has described him as an “unreliable historian” of his health. He adjusts the story as needed. The “sickly” act is a shield , one that spares him the gaze of mothers and children who lost loved ones in the drug war, some of whom have traveled to The Hague seeking justice. By remaining in his cell, he preserves the tough-guy image for supporters back home.
Update Feb. 20, 2026: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber 1 allows Duterte to skip confirmation hearings next week.“The Chamber, while acknowledging the objections of the Prosecution and the CLRV, considers that, in the present circumstances of the case, it is appropriate to proceed with the hearing on the confirmation of charges in the absence of Mr Duterte.”
As secretary of Justice, Aguirre announced that “The criminals, the drug lords, drug pushers, they are not humanity. They are not humanity.”
The ICC document said the handlers reported to a combination of police and co-perpetrators, in particular, Dela Rosa, Danao and Sonny Buenaventura, a police officer and Duterte’s driver and bodyguard, and Go, who, in turn, reported to Duterte, whose approval was required for DDS members to conduct killings in Davao City.
Several Facebook posts claim that the International Criminal Court has cleared former president Rodrigo Duterte of his charges and allowed him to go home. This is false.
A circulating graphic claims that Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio said she will step down from office if the International Criminal Court releases former president Rodrigo Duterte. The news card is fake.
Notably, the panel of ICC-chosen medical experts included a section titled “Concerning Reliability,” which Kaufman objected to. In it, the chamber noted that the panel unanimously agreed that “Mr Duterte is an unreliable historian concerning his health and mental functions” and that “Mr Duterte’s complaints of memory difficulty and apparent impaired performance on assessment are disproportionate to his observed abilities at interview.”That is a polite way of saying Duterte’s words cannot be taken at face value—hardly news to Filipinos.
