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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 14 March 2025) – Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte makes his first appearance before the Pre-Trial Chamber 1 of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands on Friday, March 14 at 2 p.m. (9 p.m. in the Philippines), where the three judges – all women — will “verify the identity of the suspect” and inform him of the charges against him and of his rights under the ICC Rome Statute.
According to the ICC media advisory issued on March 13, the hearing can be followed in English and French on the ICC website (https://www.icc-cpi.int/) “with a 30-minute delay.”
The Pre-Trial Chamber I is an all-women chamber composed of Presiding Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc and Judges Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and María del Socorro Flores Liera who signed the warrant for his arrest exactly a week earlier, on March 7.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands. Photo courtesy of ICC website The ICC media advisory said Duterte is “suspected of murder qualified as a crime against humanity” allegedly committed between November 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019 while the Philippines was a State Party to the Rome Statue, the ICC’s founding treaty.
The Philippine government under then President Duterte submitted its notice of withdrawal from the ICC on March 16, 2018, in responsed to the ICC Prosecutor’s announcement on February 8 of a preliminary examination into the Philippines’ War on Drugs, “citing possible crimes against humanity.”
“During this time (2011 to 2019), Mr Duterte was, at varying times, the President of the Philippines, the Mayor of Davao City, and, allegedly, the head of the Davao Death Squad,” the ICC media advisory said.
Duterte was President from June 30, 2016 to June 30, 2022. He served seven terms as mayor of Davao City (1988 to 1998; 2001 to 2010; 2013 to 2016), was OIC Vice Mayor from 1986 to 1987; Representative of the first district of Davao City from 1998 to 2001 and Vice Mayor from 2011 to 2013.
Duterte was Vice Mayor of Davao City when the Philippines became a signatory of the Rome Statute in 2011. His daughter, Sara, now Vice President of the Philippines, was mayor from 2010 to 2013.
Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs” as President was patterned after his bloody “war on drugs” in Davao City. The Coalition Against Summary Executions (CASE) recorded a total of 1,424 persons allegedly killed by the DDS in Davao City from 1998 to 2015.
But only the killings perpetrated from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019 are subject of the charges against Duterte in the ICC.
Hearing venue at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, where former President Rodrigo Duterte will make his first appearance on Friday, March 14 at 2 p.m. (9 p.m. in the Philippines). Photo courtesy of the ICC website A retired Davao City police officer, Arturo Lascanas, had signed a 189-page affidavit detailing, among others, the birth of the DDS in 1988, how they operated, how they killed and disposed of the bodies. He listed several names of victims and the circumstances of their deaths.
In the 2016 Senate hearing on extrajudicial killings, Lascanas, then still in active duty, dismissed the existence of the DDS as a “media hype” but in a public confession on February 20, 2017, said the self-confessed hitman, Edgar Matobato, who testified at the Senate hearings on extrajudicial killings, was, indeed, a DDS member.
“Totoo po ang existence ng Davao Death Squad o DDS. Si Edgar (Matobato, self-confessed DDS hitman who testified in the Senate in September-October) po ay isa sa miyembro namin at isa po ako sa pasimuno nito” (The existence of the DDS is real. Edgar was a member and I was one of the leaders), said Lascañas, who retired on December 16, 2016.
During his term as President, the Philippine National Police recorded 6,600 drug suspects were killed in the “war on drugs” operations from July 1, 2016 to May 31, 2019, the first half of Duterte’s six-year term.
But human rights groups say the number did not include victims of vigilante-style killings, and cite figures ranging from 12,000 to 30,000 deaths.
Duterte, who is turning 80 on March 28, was arrested on March 11 at 9:20 a.m. upon arrival in Manila from a weekend campaign sortie in Hong Kong, on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued under seal by the Pre-Trial Chamber 1 on March 7. He left Manila at 11:03 pm on a chartered plane bound for The Hague, arriving at the Rotterdam airport in the Netherlands at 4:56 p.m. (11:56 p.m. PH time) on March 12 where he was “surrendered to the custody of the ICC” by accompanying Philippine law enforcers.
Duterte is a candidate in the May 12 elections. He filed his certificate of candidacy in October 2024 for an eighth term as Davao City mayor. His youngest son Sebastian, the incumbent mayor, is running for vice mayor.
Among the audience in Duterte’s first appearance before the court are members of the diplomatic corps, civil society other members of the public, and accredited journalists. The number of visitors in the public gallery, however, is limited so the principle ‘first come, first served’ will be applied, the ICC media advisory said. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
