MANILA – The International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber I said that former president Rodrigo Duterte is fit to take part in pre-trial hearings on January 26, based on the medical experts’ report last year.
The confirmation of charges hearing is scheduled on February 23, 2026, rejecting the request of Duterte’s defense team to adjourn it.
“Mr Duterte has the capacities for the meaningful exercise of his procedural and fair trial rights,” an excerpt from the joint report of medical experts reads, citing that the accused has the mental and functional capacities to understand the charges, evidence, and the conduct of the proceedings.
For human rights lawyer Kristina Conti, ICC Assistant to Counsel, the decision ends the uncertainty. She said that they will be ready for the confirmation of charges hearing.
“This should also end the drama about an old and frail man; the Court clearly finds that Duterte is a perceptive person who has a broad understanding of what he has been charged with,” Conti said in a Facebook post. “The panel of experts even mention that his conditions do not prevent him from giving testimony.”
She urged the prosecution and the court to expand the acts attributable to Duterte to include not only victims of extrajudicial killings but also imprisonment, torture, and other inhumane acts, as part of the general charge of crimes against humanity.
ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I appointed a panel of independent medical experts to assess Duterte’s ability to follow and take part in the pre-trial proceedings, giving them a deadline until December 5. The medical details of Duterte are redacted since it contained confidential medical information.
Earlier, the principal counsel of the Office of Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV), representing the collective interests of the potential victims, said that there are no obstacles that prevent Duterte from exercising his procedural rights.
Read: ‘Feigning cognitive impairments’ | Prosecution, victims urge ICC to proceed with hearing
Duterte is currently in the custody of ICC in The Hague after the Court found reasonable grounds to believe that he is responsible for crimes against humanity of murder committed under his term as a mayor of Davao City and as president in 2018, before the withdrawal of the Philippines from the Rome Statute took effect.
Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the Rome Statute in March 2018. But the court had jurisdiction over the crimes committed prior to the withdrawal, which would include the killings at the height of the so-called war on drugs and the killings committed by the Davao Death Squad during Duterte’s stint as a mayor in Davao.
“A State shall not be discharged, by reason of its withdrawal, from the obligations arising from this Statute while it was a Party to the Statute, including any financial obligations which may have accrued,” the Article 127 read, outlining the jurisdiction of the court despite its withdrawal from the Statute.
Of the 30,000 victims of the drug war extrajudicial killings recorded by human rights organizations, not even one percent resulted in conviction. The ICC Registry reportedly received more than 300 applications for victim participation in Duterte’s prosecution.
Lawyer of drug war families, Atty. Joel Butuyan, said in a statement sent to ABS-CBN that the recent ICC decision removes the “last of the multiple obstacles that the defense has tried to put up in order to prevent Mr Duterte from becoming liable for the crimes against humanity.”
He said that Duterte’s excuses are ruled as baseless and unfounded. “It is time for the victims to tell their stories.” (DAA)
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