The International Criminal Court (ICC) has allowed the case against former president Rodrigo Duterte to move forward after rejecting his appeal questioning his fitness to stand trial, with judges set to determine at a February 23 confirmation hearing whether there is sufficient evidence to commit him to trial.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have publicly identified several of Duterte’s closest allies and senior law enforcement officials as alleged co-perpetrators in crimes against humanity linked to the Philippines’ anti-drug campaign.
‘Fit to stand trial’
In an 11-page decision dated February 13, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I denied Duterte’s request for leave to appeal its earlier ruling that found him fit to participate in pre-trial proceedings and rejected an indefinite adjournment of his case.
The chamber said the defense failed to raise any appealable issue that would significantly affect the fairness or expeditiousness of the proceedings, stressing that disagreement with a ruling does not, by itself, justify an appeal.
“An appealable ‘issue’ is an identifiable subject or topic requiring a decision for its resolution, not merely a question over which there is disagreement or conflicting opinion,” the chamber said.
The judges noted that the defense misrepresented the chamber’s January 26 ruling, which relied on the conclusions of a panel of medical experts who had already considered the defense’s own medical reports.
The chamber said it opted to rely on the experts’ joint conclusions “to ensure the fairness of the proceedings,” adding that its finding does not prevent any future chamber from revisiting Duterte’s fitness should circumstances change.
On the same day, the ICC authorized the participation of 500 additional victims in the pre-trial phase, bringing the total number of victims cleared to take part in the confirmation proceedings to 539.
Co-perpetrators named
A day later, ICC prosecutors disclosed new details of the case in a lesser redacted version of the Document Containing Charges dated February 13, naming several incumbent and former officials as alleged co-perpetrators in the killings linked to Duterte’s drug war.
Among those identified were Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go, former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, and senior police and law enforcement officials Vicente Danao, the late Camilo Cascolan, Oscar Albayalde, Dante Gierran, and Isidro Lapeña, along with unnamed members of the police and other high-ranking officials.
According to the prosecution, “at least between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019,” Duterte and his co-perpetrators “shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralise’ alleged criminals in the Philippines … through violent crimes including murder.”
During Duterte’s tenure as mayor of Davao City, prosecutors said he, Go, and senior law enforcement officials used local police and non-police hitmen, collectively referred to as the Davao Death Squad (DDS), to kill suspected criminals.
“By means of their de jure and/or de facto authority, one or more of the Co-Perpetrators controlled a structure of power—the local police and related DDS hierarchy—that enabled them to control the will of the physical perpetrators,” the prosecution said.
The filing further alleged that the plan was later expanded nationwide during Duterte’s presidency, with police forces allegedly compelled to comply through chains of command and other mechanisms that ensured obedience.
Duterte, who has been in ICC custody in The Hague since March 2025, is charged by prosecutors with three counts of crimes against humanity as an indirect co-perpetrator: (1) murders in or around Davao City during his mayoral period; (2) murders of alleged high-value targets during his presidency; and (3) murders and attempted murders during barangay clearance operations nationwide.
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