DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 23 September) — The International Criminal Court (ICC) has charged former Philippine president Rodrigo Roa Duterte with three counts of murder as a crime against humanity, involving at least 76 deaths during his bloody war on drugs — 19 in Davao City while serving as mayor from 2013 to 2016, and 57 while serving as President between 2016 and 2018.
The three counts are murder as a crime against humanity of 19 victims in Davao City during the mayoral period between 2013 and 2016; murder as a crime against humanity of 14 ‘high-value target’ victims in locations across the Philippines during the presidential period between 2016 and 2018 and murder as crimes against humanity of 45 victims (43 murders and two attempted murders) in barangay clearance operations across the Philippines also during the presidential period.”
The 80-year old Duterte, Mayor of Davao City from 1988 to 1998, 2001 to 2010, 2013 to 2016 and President of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was charged as indirect co-perpetrator, ordering and/or inducing; and/or aiding and abetting the commission of the crimes.
The ICC released on September 22 a public redacted version of the July 5, 2025 document containing the charges (DCC). September 23 was earlier scheduled as the date for the confirmation of charges but this was postponed to a still unknown date on September 8, upon the request of Duterte’s counsel who claimed his client is “not fit to stand trial.”
Duterte was arrested on March 11 and flown to The Hague in the Netherlands where he has been detained by the ICC since March 12. He made his first appearance before the court on March 14. The September 23 hearing would have been his second appearance.
In the May 12 elections, Duterte was elected to an 8th term as mayor, was proclaimed winner in absentia by the Commission on Elections but has not taken his oath of office. His son, Sebastian, the elected Vice Mayor, is presently the Acting Mayor.
Of 76 victims, 19 or 25% of the victims were killed in Davao City while Duterte was mayor. They were alleged drug pushers and alleged thieves.
But the ICC noted that the number of victims is only a representative sample of the thousands believed to have been killed extrajudicially within the period.
The Prosecution charged Duterte for the 76 murders and two attempted murders “although the actual scale of victimization during the charged period was significantly greater, as reflected in the widespread nature of the attack,” the ICC said in the 15-page DCC signed by Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang.
The ICC said that from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019, the Davao Death Squad (DDS) and later the National Network carried out a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population in the Philippines” and that it comprised “multiple acts contrary to article 7(1) of the Rome Statute (amounting to a course of conduct) directed against the civilian population of the Philippines, including but not limited to the 76 murders [REDACTED] charged in this DCC, as well as at least hundreds of other murders during the Mayoral period, thousands of other murders in the Presidential period, and other violent crimes under article 7(1).”
Article 7(1) refers to Crimes against humanity, including murder.
The ICC said the attack was widespread because it was “carried out on a large scale and frequent basis, victimizing a significant number of civilians over a broad geographic area and a prolonged period.”
It was also “systematic in that it was planned, organized, and executed in a coordinated fashion, with the acts perpetrated in a clear pattern of violence directed at the targeted population.”
Mayoral period and Presidential period
The ICC said that during the mayoral period – referring to Duterte’s 7th term as mayor (2013 to 2016) or just before he was elected President, Duterte and law police from Davao City and non-police hitmen which it said together formed the DDS, to kill alleged criminals.
The Coalition Against Summary Executions (CASE) in Davao City had documented cases of summary killings since 1998, attributed to the DDS. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, made a report in 2007 on the issue and the Commission on Human Rights also probed the DDS killings in 2009.
However, the ICC’s investigation covers only the period from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019 when the Philippines was a state party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC.
“From at least 1 November 2011 to 16 March 2019, the DDS and/or the National Network carried out a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population in the Philippines,” it said, adding that from 1 November 1, 2011 until Duterte took oath as President on June 30, 2016, “the attack was primarily concentrated in Davao City” and from June 30, 2016 to March 16, 2019, “the attack expanded across the Philippines.”
It added that during the Mayoral period, the attack was carried out predominantly by the Davao City police and paid non-police hitmen who together comprised the DDS. During the Presidential period, the attack was carried out by the “National Network (predominantly law enforcement personnel with non-police assets and hitmen under their direction and/or control).”
The ICC noted that 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.”
It said that Duterte, as mayor, “sat at the apex of the formal police and city structures, with legal control over the PNP units in Davao City, as well as of non-police Davao City Hall workers and barangay (the smallest political and administrative unit in the Philippines) officials who sometimes participated in or facilitated the crimes.”
“The DDS followed a similarly hierarchical structure with Duterte at the top, as the Head of the DDS. At the bottom were the DDS members who physically carried out the crimes (generally non-police hitmen or low-level police), who were subordinated to police or barangay handlers,” it said.
The handlers in turn reported to a combination of police and co-perpetrators whose names are in the document but not included in the public redacted version. “Duterte’s approval was required for DDS members to conduct killings in Davao City,” the ICC said.
Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed DDS hitman, was the first to say in a Senate hearing in September 2016 that Duterte founded the DDS and that active police officers were in the DDS as well. Matobato’s testimony would be corroborated later by then newly-retired police officer Arturo Lascanas. Lacanas had earlier testified at the Senate that the DDS was a media creation but in late February 2017 recanted his Senate testimony and made a public confession on the DDS, corroborating what Matobato said but giving more specific details about the structure and how they operated.
National Network
The ICC said that when he became President, Duterte established a National Network of perpetrators composed of state actors from the Philippine National Police, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, National Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Corrections, along with non-police assets and hired gunmen, “to replicate the DDS model on a national scale.”
According to the ICC, Duterte appointed his co-perpetrators from Davao to high-level national positions, enabling them to “exercise control over the physical perpetrators,” and utilized the national network, including its low-level members, as tools to commit the crimes.
“Duterte was aware that the common plan involved an element of criminality and was aware of the fundamental features of the DDS and the National Network, which enabled him to exercise control over the charged crimes together with his co-perpetrators,” it said.
The ICC listed Duterte’s “essential contributions” to commission of the crimes, including, among others, by designing and disseminating the policy to kill suspected criminals; instructing and authorizing violent acts including murder to be committed; providing personnel and other necessary logistical resources such as weapons including those to be used in the execution of the crimes; and appointing key personnel to positions which were crucial to the execution of the crimes.
It also alleged that Duterte offered financial incentives and promotions to police officers and hired gunmen; and publicly identified individuals and presented charts listing alleged criminals, including so-called “high-value targets,” some of whom were later killed, it added. (Carolyn O. Arguillas and Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
