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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
February 25, 2026 | 12:23pm
MANILA, Philippines — After two days of what lawyers say was an "airtight" and "clinical" presentation by the prosecution at the International Criminal Court, former president Rodrigo Duterte's defense team must now do what it did not do during its opening speech on day one: answer the evidence.
ICC prosecutors used their time yesterday at the confirmation hearing to build their case, element by element, that Duterte ultimately set up a national system of killings. Among others, the prosecution team highlighted a Philippine National Police circular ordering targets "neutralized," Duterte's own public speeches encouraging summary executions, and a "kill list" carried out by a national network.
To recall, lead defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman used his opening statement Monday not to preview a defense against the evidence but to frame the case as political persecution against Duterte.
The British-Israeli lawyer accused Marcos Jr. of betraying Duterte, questioning the prosecution's and the victims' advocates' integrity, and portraying the former president as a leader Filipinos chose precisely for his tough stance on crime.
Two lawyers tracking the proceedings said the approach left the defense with little to no foundation heading into Thursday, when it is scheduled to present its case on the merits.
"The bankruptcy of the defense is obvious to me, and that's why perhaps the tactic was to just delay, delay, delay," said lawyer Jojo Lacanilao of the Duterte Panagutin Campaign Network.
Lacanilao believes Kaufman's strategy during the opening statement amounted to arguing "everybody's guilty except Duterte" — Marcos, the prosecution, even "academics from abroad" — without giving the court any legal basis to find the former president not responsible for the killings.
"That's not a defense. That's just an excuse," Lacanilao said in an interview with ANC's Headstart. "Nothing that will give the court any kind of basis to say ... 'This guy is really not guilty of all of these crimes.'"
Duterte's defense team has been allotted the entire Thursday session — three and a half hours — to present its submissions on the merits, the longest block of time given to any party during the four-day hearing.
What the prosecution presented
On Monday, ICC Senior Trial Lawyer Julian Nicholls opened the prosecution's merits presentation by tracing the origins of the killings to the Davao Death Squad, which prosecutors say Duterte founded in 1988 while he was mayor. This, according to the prosecution, established a chain of command running from Duterte down through handlers to the gunmen who carried out the killings.
On Tuesday, ICC Trial Lawyers Robynne Croft and Edward Jeremy expanded the case to the national scale. Croft showed the court how the killings, initially concentrated in Davao City, spread nationwide after Duterte won the presidency in 2016 and installed his co-perpetrators in key posts.
Among the evidence presented was a 2016 command memorandum circular issued by then-PNP chief and now Sen. Bato dela Rosa — one of eight named co-perpetrators — detailing the plan to "neutralize" drug personalities.
Colmenares, who is at The Hague and is counsel to drug war victims — separate from the common legal representatives who presented in court — said the prosecution proved all four elements of crimes against humanity: that the attack was widespread and systematic, that it was directed against civilians, that it was carried out under a state policy, and that Duterte had knowledge of it.
"The evidence is very strong. We are confident the charges will be confirmed," Colmenares said in an interview with DZMM.
While the prosecution's presentation was just the "tip of the iceberg" of all evidence, Lacanilao said they were able to "painstakingly define" the word "neutralize" in the context of the Philippines, which is "to kill."
Duterte strategy not known
Colmenares said he is unsure what direction the defense will take tomorrow when it has the whole day to present its own merits.
He noted that former Duterte legal adviser Salvador Panelo had suggested Kaufman focus on hammering the jurisdiction issue, but the Pre-Trial Chamber has already warned both sides not to relitigate motions it had previously resolved and rejected.
"The court already said, don't argue those motions you already filed. We already decided on that — you lost," Colmenares said. "I don't know if they'll raise it, because the court might just say, we already ruled on that."
He added that the defense's failure to engage with the prosecution's case during the opening statement only strengthened that confidence.
"If you're just going to say Marcos broke his promise not to cooperate with the ICC — what is the relevance of that? The question at the ICC is, thousands were killed. Did you do it?"
Duterte faces three counts of crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder, covering at least 49 incidents and 78 victims between 2011 and 2019, spanning his time as Davao City mayor and later as president. The ICC has authorized 539 victims to participate in the proceedings.
Duterte has refused to attend the hearings, saying he does not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction. The Philippines withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2019 under his orders, but the court has ruled it retains jurisdiction over crimes committed from 2011 to 2019 when the country was still a party to the statute.
The hearing concludes Friday with closing statements from the prosecution, the legal representatives of the victims, and the defense. The court then has 60 days to decide whether to confirm the charges and send the case to trial.
