{"id":54545,"date":"2026-01-27T09:24:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=54545"},"modified":"2026-01-27T09:25:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T09:25:05","slug":"philippines-duterte-fit-to-face-icc-proceedings-judges-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=54545","title":{"rendered":"Philippines&#8217; Duterte fit to face ICC proceedings, judges say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BBC:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have ruled that former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is fit to attendpre-trial proceedingsfor alleged crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ICC also will hold a hearing on 23 February to decide whether the prosecution&#8217;s case against Duterte is strong enough to proceed to a trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Duterte&#8217;s lawyers earlier argued that the 80-year-old wasunfit to participate in the ICC proceedings citing &#8220;cognitive impairment&#8221;. He has been detained at the Hague since March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He is accused of being responsible for dozens of murders under his so-called war on drugs, during which thousands of small-time drug dealers, users and others were killed without trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Duterte was president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He justified his war on drugs by saying peace and order would pave the way for economic development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Citing opinions from a panel of medical experts, ICC judges said they were &#8220;satisfied&#8221; that Duterte is &#8220;able effectively to exercise his procedural rights and is therefore fit to take part in the pre-trial proceedings&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ICC judges also said in their decision on Monday that the mental capacities needed to &#8220;meaningfully exercise one&#8217;s procedural and fair trial rights&#8221; did not have to be &#8220;at their notionally highest level&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This ruling tells victims that in the reckoning of Duterte at the ICC, their voices will not be sidelined by technical evasions,&#8221; said Congresswoman Leila de Lima, one of Duterte&#8217;s fiercest critics who was jailed during his presidency on drug charges that were later found to be false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Duterte was arrested at Manila airport in March 2025 as his family&#8217;s alliance with his successor, President Ferdinand &#8220;Bongbong&#8221; Marcos Jr crumbled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His arrest has divided Filipinos. While his deadly drugs crackdown has drawn sharp criticism from civil society, his populist message resonates with those who feel sidelined by Manila&#8217;s political elite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In May last year, Duterte was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/crk24jxk646o\">elected mayor of Davao city&nbsp;<\/a>despite being in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte, is also widely expected to run for president in the 2028 elections, where Marcos is ineligible to seek a second term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC: Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have ruled that former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is fit to attendpre-trial proceedingsfor alleged crimes against humanity. The ICC also will hold a hearing on 23 February to decide whether the prosecution&#8217;s case against Duterte is strong enough to proceed to a trial. Duterte&#8217;s lawyers earlier argued that the 80-year-old wasunfit to participate in the ICC proceedings citing &#8220;cognitive impairment&#8221;. He has been detained at the Hague since March 2025. He is accused of being responsible for dozens of murders under his so-called war on drugs, during which thousands of small-time drug&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54547,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54545\/revisions\/54547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}