DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 11 October) – Vice President Sara Duterte has kept mum on the October 10 decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that cited her public pronouncements and family’s influence as factors in denying interim release for her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Sara has not issued a statement as of 9 p.m. on October 11. But according to ABS-CBN News in a report from Mati City in Davao Oriental which the Vice President visited on Saturday, Sara “declined to comment for now on her father’s rejected interim release bid before the ICC.” The report quoted her as saying “i-hold ko na lang muna ‘yung comment ko dito sa ICC case kasi kailangan natin maki-empathize sa mga nabiktima ng lindol at mag-sympathize doon sa mga namatayan” (I will hold my comment on the ICC case first because we need to empathize with the earthquake victims and sympathize with those who lost their loved ones).
Shortly after news broke out about the ICC’s decision on Friday afternoon, a “certificate of recognition” meme on Sara went viral on social media.
The three-term mayor of Davao City who was elected Vice President in 2022, was “awarded” for her “invaluable role in the ICC’s decision rejecting Rodrigo Duterte’s request for interim release.”
The ruling also mentioned Vice Mayor Sebastian Duterte, now Acting Mayor, though only through his title, for his alleged influence and connections.
The ICC in The Hague, the Netherlands denied the request for Duterte’s temporary liberty in an ICC member-state willing to accept him, citing, among others, public pronouncements of Sara that illustrate “rejection of the proceedings against him before the Court, and the will of his close family to help him elude detention and prosecution.”
Sebastian has yet to issue a statement but his brother Paolo, Duterte’s eldest son and third-term 1stDistrict Representative, did Friday night, saying the ICC’s decision is “a gross and disgraceful miscarriage of justice” and that they will appeal the decision.
He said his father “is definitely not a flight risk, he does not need it, he is much loved in his own country that he would have wanted nothing more but to stay there for as long as his creator permit him.”
“To all kidnappers of my father I will make sure that you will pay for this crime that you have committed. To the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) who connived in this criminal act, my father’s kidnapping will not silence him. As a matter of fact, you might just have helped in making him a martyr. The anger of his people on his baseless imprisonment might just worsen just as their love for him will grow bigger,” Paolo said.
Continued detention
Duterte’s detention “continues to remain necessary” and is “required so as to ensure his appearance in these proceedings, that he does not obstruct or endanger the investigation or the Court’s proceedings, and to prevent the commission of related crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court,” the Chamber said in its 23-page decision, released a day before Duterte marked the seventh month from his arrest.
The 80-year old Duterte is facing 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.
Duterte’s counsel, Nicholas Kaufman requested for his interim release on June 12.
When Duterte first appeared before the ICC on March 14, his hearing for confirmation of charges was scheduled on September 23 but on September 8, this was postponed following a request from his lawyer for an “indefinite adjournment” of the proceedings alleging that Duterte “is not fit to stand trial.”
In his June 12 “urgent request” for interim release, Kaufman said Duterte is not a flight risk, that any risk is “totally neutralized” by Duterte’s affirmation that “he will refrain from public engagement, office, or communications with persons outside his family,” and that he has also agreed to abstain from use of the internet or any electronic devices, such as a mobile phone.
Kaufman also said that given these restrictions and “considering that he will be residing well outside the geographic scope of the alleged crimes,” the likelihood of Duterte posing a risk is “non-existent.”
Contradiction
In its October 10 decision, the Chamber noted that on July 19 this year, Duterte’s daughter, Sara, “mentioned in public speeches the idea of breaking Mr. Duterte out of the ICC Detention Centre, and attempted to delegitimise the Court’s proceedings against Mr. Duterte, citing collusion between the Court and the government of the Philippines as well as the use of ‘fake witnesses’.”
It also noted that Sara “allegedly indicated on 19 August 2025 that Mr. Duterte had told her that he wishes to return to Davao City, should he be granted interim release, in contradiction with the Defence’s assertion that he would remain in the State he would be released to.”
“The foregoing illustrates Mr. Duterte’s rejection of the proceedings against him before the Court, and the will of his close family to help him elude detention and prosecution,” the Chamber said.
The Prosecution and the Office of Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV) had opposed the request for interim release.
The Prosecution argued that Duterte’s continued detention is necessary “to ensure his appearance at trial” considering that Duterte “does not accept the legitimacy of the legal proceedings he is subject to before the Court, as demonstrated by his resistance to his arrest and the claims that he has been kidnapped by the Court; that he has maintained a ‘political position and international contacts’ that may contribute to his ability to abscond; his potential access to significant financial resources that would enable him to abscond; and that the arguments of Duterte’s lawyer regarding his alleged physical frailty should be rejected for reasons that have been redacted in the public version of the ruling.
The Prosecution also asserted that Duterte’s release “could pose a risk of endangerment or obstruction of the Prosecution’s ongoing investigation because of the “possible opportunity to intimidate or threaten witnesses either directly or indirectly, through his associates or his family members’ and ‘a repeated history of Mr. Duterte interfering with investigations against him’.”
Political position and international contacts, family’s influence
It also argued that Duterte’s continued detention is necessary “to prevent him from continuing with the commission of [the] crime [against humanity of murder] or a related crime which is within the jurisdiction of the Court. It said Duterte himself has been reported to have pledged to “double” the killings the “moment I return”’
In its opposition, the OPCV cited among others, Duterte’s ‘access to a large amount of evidence, including the identities of some of the Prosecution’s witnesses’ and Sara’s statement relaying his claim that ‘he was brought to the Court illegally’; his ‘political position and international contacts, as well as his financial situation’; and Duterte’s and his family members’ ‘public positions’ and ‘continued influence in the Philippines’.
The OPCV also said the current medical documentation submitted by Duterte’s counsel “does not suffice to justify an interim release but rather demonstrates that Mr. Duterte still has mental and physical ability to evade justice and fail to appear before the Court; obstruct or endanger the investigation or the court proceedings, and continue with the commission of the crimes within the jurisdiction of the
Court, if released.”
The chamber noted that risk continues given the “position of power” of Duterte’s son, referring to Acting Mayor Sebastian Duterte.
Duterte’s defense counsel, says is it is “unreasonable to conclude that Mr. Duterte would possess the faculties necessary to formulate and execute the continued commission of crimes.”
There are eight Dutertes currently in power: Vice President Sara, Davao City Mayor-elect Rodrigo Duterte, Vice Mayor Sebastian, 1st district Rep. Paolo, 2nd district Rep. Omar, number one councilor Rodrigo “Rigo” II and cousin Harold Duterte of the PPP party-list, and Paolo’s wife January, chair of the Association of Barangay Captains.
Network of support
The Chamber said Duterte, from his initial appearance before the ICC on March 14, has “contested his arrest and detention, qualifying it ‘as a pure and simple kidnapping.’”
It said Duterte’s position as former Philippine President “appears to have the necessary political contacts, as well as to benefit from a network of support within that country, including his daughter, who currently holds the office of Vice-President of the Philippines, that may help him abscond.”
It added that Duterte continues to pose a flight risk and that the question of the risks to witnesses and investigations ‘revolves around the possibility, not the inevitability, of a future occurrence’.”
It said Duterte’s and his associates’ history shows that he is able and has means, either directly or through his associates, to obstruct proceedings against him, such as his “alleged involvement in briefing a witness due to testify before the Philippines Senate’s inquiry into the Davao Death Squad, as well as threatening and taking retaliatory actions against individuals opposed to him.”
Threat to witnesses
The Pre-Trial Chamber noted that if interim release were to be granted, Duterte would “pose a threat to (potential) witnesses, either directly or indirectly through his supporters” and on the issue of committing related crimes, the Chamber said that in 2024,Duterte “allegedly pledged to double the killings if he were to be elected again as Mayor of Davao City.”
Duterte won an eighth term as mayor of Davao City in the May 12, 2025 polls, was proclaimed winner in absentia by the Commission on Elections the next day but has not taken his oath of office.
His youngest son, Sebastian, the elected Vice Mayor, is presently Acting Mayor.
The Chamber said some of the crimes alleged in the warrant of arrest were allegedly committed while Duterte was mayor of Davao City.
In its document containing the charges (DCC) on September 22, the ICC said the killings covered by the ICC cases are from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019 when the Philippines was still a member-state of the ICC.
It said the Davao Death Squad “and/or the National Network carried out a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population in the Philippines,” and 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.”
25% in Davao City
Of 76 victims in the three counts for crime against humanity of murder, 19 or 25% of the victims were killed in Davao City within that period. But the figure does not include those killed in the war on drugs in Davao City before 2011. The Coalition Against Summary Execution (CASE) documented cases of alleged DDS killing from 1998.
The ICC, however, 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.
In its October 10 decision, the Pre-Trial Chamber said that should Duterte return to Davao City, he would be “placed in the very position that allowed him to commit the crimes for which his arrest and surrender to the Court was initially sought.”
The ICC also rejected the Defense’s argument that Duterte should be released for humanitarian reasons. It said Duterte enjoys the right to medical treatment, that a qualified medical officer with experience in psychiatry “shall be available to attend the detention center” and a nurse is available at all times.
It also said Duterte’s “right to family life is guaranteed” and he may “receive visits from and call his family members.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
