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Janvic Mateo - The Philippine Star
February 25, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Former president Rodrigo Duterte has requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) to allow him to waive his attendance at the scheduled hearing regarding his detention on Friday.
“My counsel has explained to me the legal consequences emanating from such a waiver and I trust him and my ICC legal team to represent me faithfully,” read the waiver signed by the former president and submitted to the court by his defense team on Monday.
“I do not wish to follow this hearing from outside the courtroom through the use of communications technology,” he added.
The annual review of his detention was scheduled at 2 p.m. on Friday in The Hague (9 p.m. in Manila), immediately after the closing statements for the confirmation hearings.
The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I earlier allowed the former president to skip the confirmation hearings.
Under ICC’s rules, the Pre-Trial Chamber is required to hold a hearing on pre-trial detention at least once every year. The pre-trial judges earlier denied Duterte’s request for interim release.
Meanwhile, his former chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the prosecution only presented “speculations, allegation and hearsay” during the opening of the hearing on confirmation of charges on Monday.
“There is no evidence, that they are repeating it to the public, that it is the fault of the former president Duterte,” Panelo said over radio dzBB.
At the same time, Panelo said he is satisfied with arguments raised by defense lawyer Nicolas Kaufman.
“In terms of defense, every point that was presented by the other side, of the lawyer of the former president Duterte, it is very clear for the judges to understand who watched and who listened,” Panelo said.
He said Duterte’s Kaufman was right about asserting before the ICC that Duterte was just exaggerating in his speeches.
“Like what the defense explained to you, most of this is hyperbole, and this is the style of president Duterte even when he was a law student, a lawyer when he was young, a fiscal, until he became a mayor. That’s his style of bluster, and he used that to scare the criminals,” he added.
Such style, he added, helped in the success of his drug war. “That’s his style, and this is very effective. That’s why he destroyed the drug syndicates to the minimum. If he didn’t do that, nothing. Unlike now, we have a President who is soft, who doesn’t talk. If he talks, nothing. He has no courage. That’s why the drug syndicates return,” Panelo claimed.
The former presidential spokesman and chief legal counsel again questioned the jurisdiction of the ICC over Duterte. “We all know that president Duterte doesn’t believe in the ICC because, first of all, he pointed out that it has no jurisdiction. That’s true. In fact, as a lawyer, the presentation of defense is good… but the hearing that is being held now is irrelevant to us because the International Criminal Court forgets that until now, they have not resolved with finality the issue of jurisdiction,” he added.
“There has not been a genuine and final resolution that they really have no jurisdiction. What they have resolved, which until now has not been finalized, is the issue of jurisdiction. The defense is saying that the country has already left as a member, but what the ICC is saying is that ‘you have a residual obligation.’ but their interpretation is wrong because they reiterated that under the residual obligation principle, they investigated before leaving,” he noted.
Panelo also stressed that the justice system in the country is working.
“All member-states will only have a chance to allow the ICC to enter if they are unable to punish those who commit crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and war of aggression. They cannot prove that because the Philippines, in our country, has the capacity to put two presidents and two senators in jail,” he said. “Now, there is a senator who is in jail. We ousted a president because of the crimes they committed against the country. We have detained thousands of people,” he added. – Bella Cariaso
