DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 06 January) — Nearly 10 months after former President Rodrigo R. Duterte was arrested and flown to the International Criminal Court (ICC), his children have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to direct the Philippine government to take all available steps to secure their father’s return to the country and to stop the Philippine government from cooperating with the international tribunal.
Davao City 1st District Representative Paolo “Pulong” Duterte and his sister, Veronica “Kitty” Duterte, filed their separate memoranda with the Court through their counsels on Monday, while Sebastian filed his on December 29, 2025.
The submission of their pleadings was made in response to an SC resolution dated November 11, 2025, which required them to file their memorandum in connection with the separate petitions for writ of habeas corpus that the siblings had lodged in March 2025.
The Duterte siblings sought the release of their father from confinement and detention at the ICC.
The former President, arrested on March 11, 2025 and detained at The Hague, Netherlands since March 12, has been charged with crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder, committed between November 2011 and March 2019.
In his memorandum, Paolo maintained that despite his father’s detention at the ICC, the petition must survive, stating that the procedure for his surrender was illegal as it violated “international and domestic laws.”
“In fine, the arrest, detention, surrender, and extradition of FPRRD (former President Rodrigo R. Duterte) are unconstitutional and illegal,” he said.
Paolo prayed, among others, for the annulment of acts taken by the Philippine government affirming cooperation with the ICC and the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, and sought to prohibit them from cooperating with these bodies.
Veronica Duterte asked the Court to order government officials to take all available measures to facilitate their father’s immediate return, while Sebastian Duterte urged the Court to require them to “produce the body” of the former President.
On November 28, 2025, the Appeals Chamber of the ICC upheld the September 26, 2025 decision of Pre-Trial Chamber 1, which denied the request of Duterte for an interim release, ruling that his continued detention was necessary and that the proposed conditions “were not sufficient to mitigate the risks it found in relation to Mr. Duterte’s interim release.”
In challenging the earlier decision of Pre-Trial Chamber 1, Duterte’s defense team questioned the finding that he was a flight risk, argued that the chamber erred in rejecting the guarantees offered by the State willing to receive him, and claimed it erred in law by failing to consider humanitarian considerations in assessing his right to interim release.
The Court, however, unanimously denied all three grounds of appeal.
“After examining the arguments raised in the appeal brief, the Appeals Chamber found that the Defense failed to identify errors in the Pre-Trial Chamber’s reasoning or to demonstrate that the Pre-Trial Chamber’s conclusions were unreasonable,” the Court said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
