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MANILA, Philippines — The International Criminal Court has confirmed all charges of crimes against humanity against former President Rodrigo Duterte and committed him to a full-blown trial.
In a decision released Thursday, April 23, the Pre-Trial Chamber I ruled that Duterte ran a state killing machine whose order to "neutralize" criminals ultimately meant one thing: to kill them.
This commits Duterte to a full trial, the first for any Asian head of state at the court.
The ruling also delivers the largest win so far in drug war victims' five-year crusade for justice, which began when the ICC opened its investigation in 2021, survived the Philippines' withdrawal from the court's founding treaty under Duterte's own presidency, and culminated in his arrest and transfer to The Hague in March 2025.
Duterte now faces three counts of murder and attempted murder as crimes against humanity. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
At trial, prosecutors must clear a far higher bar than the one applied to this decision, specifically proof beyond a reasonable doubt, rather than the "substantial grounds to believe" applied at confirmation.
The ICC will now constitute a new Trial Chamber of three judges to conduct the full-blown trial.
According to the court's briefer for the decision, Duterte's camp is not automatically entitled to appeal but can seek authorization to do so.
Article 63 of the Rome Statute requires an accused to appear in-person during their trial.
Three counts, thousands of dead
The confirmed charges span both Duterte's time as Davao City mayor and as president.
Duterte is charged with all three counts of murder and attempted murder as crimes against humanity.
Count 1 charges the murder of at least 19 people in Davao City between 2013 and June 2016, while Duterte was mayor.
The victims were killed by members of the Davao Death Squad "due to allegations of involvement in criminal activities, such as drug use, drug trafficking, or theft," the chamber found.
On Count 2, the chamber found that at least 14 people "were killed by law enforcement personnel of the Philippines or non-police assets and hitmen who were under their direction and/or control."
Targets were placed on the "PRRD List" — named for Duterte's initials — and ranked by tier. Police who killed a listed name could claim covert cash rewards of 50,000 to one million pesos.
On Count 3, the court found law enforcement or hitmen under their control "killed at least 43 persons and that two additional persons who were targeted for killing survived because of circumstances independent of the perpetrators' intentions."
The victims included Kian Loyd Delos Santos, a 17-year-old shot by police in Caloocan City in August 2017. Two other minors were strangled to death in Bulacan.
The chamber found that these killings formed part of a "widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population" that was "carried out on a large scale and frequent basis, victimising a significant number of civilians over a broad geographic area and a prolonged period of time."
The attack, it wrote, "included thousands of killings, which were perpetrated consistently throughout the charged period."
Planted guns, fake shootouts
Duterte's defense argued throughout the proceedings that the evidence, including police and forensic reports, "shows that the deaths occurred during armed confrontations in which force was used in response to an imminent threat," and that Duterte had authorized "lethal force only where life was in danger."
The chamber rejected this.
Witnesses who participated in the killings "consistently [indicate] that there were no threats posed by victims to the direct perpetrators," the judges ruled.
Instead, the evidence revealed a uniform cover-up routine, where, after each killing, perpetrators "planted drugs, money as well as guns or gun powder on or nearby the victims' bodies and, on some occasions, even fired the gun in the victim's hand to make it look as if the victim had fired shots."
The defense also pointed to references to human rights and lawful conduct in official speeches and policy documents. The chamber acknowledged these existed, but found they appeared in the same speeches that contained "explicit instructions to carry out unlawful killings."
Some of these speeches, the court noted, went further — they "trivialised the distinction between lawful self-defence and unlawful killing by expressly stating that individuals should be killed irrespective of whether they posed a threat."
The "mere inclusion of references to lawful conduct," the judges concluded, "is not, in and of itself, determinative of the legal characterisation of the facts or the suspect's intent."
'Neutralize' meant 'kill'
The defense argued that "neutralize" — the word found across official campaign documents, policy plans and Duterte's speeches — "denotes lawful restraint" and was articulated "as lawful incapacitation through arrest and related measures, not as a policy of killings."
The chamber disagreed. It acknowledged that the word "could, in the abstract, refer to lawful law enforcement actions," but ruled that "there is sufficient evidence to establish that 'neutralise' meant 'to kill' in the context of the present case."
Two insider witnesses told the court directly that the word meant "to kill." The judges found this consistent with documentary evidence: subjects targeted on the "PRRD list," some of whom Duterte had named publicly in speeches, "were also marked as neutralised on the day of their killing."
The defense cited one co-conspirator's claim that "neutralize" meant "to arrest" and pointed to the Philippine Supreme Court's refusal to interpret the word as meaning "killing." The chamber found neither argument persuasive — noting, in particular, that the co-conspirator offered this interpretation "despite his involvement in the creation and implementation of the alleged criminal policy."
Duterte's own public statements left little room for ambiguity. Before becoming president, he "refers to his orders to shoot and kill criminals in Davao City, and the related reward system, as legitimate tools of government to prevent lawlessness, and warns drug users and pushers that he would tell the police to kill them."
The chamber also found that those who refused orders within the command structure established by Duterte risked death.
Direct perpetrators who "did not follow or acted without orders from Mr Duterte, had too much information about the DDS, tried to leave the organisation, or lost the trust of their superiors, were tortured or killed."
Others "were threatened with losing their positions if they did not kill enough people during police operations," the decision read.
Named co-conspirators
The confirmed charges identify eight co-conspirators, each of whom shared in the common plan "for at least part of the charged period."
In Davao City, Duterte relied on a rotating cast of police chiefs and loyalists to run the DDS. Former PNP chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa served as Davao City police chief from January 2012 to October 2013. Former Davao City police chief Vicente Danao took over from October 2013 to June 2016. Christopher "Bong" Go served as Duterte's personal aide and special assistant from 1998 onward.
It is well known that wehn Duterte won the presidency in 2016, he installed these same figures and allies — and others — at the top of national law enforcement and other agencies.
Dela Rosa became PNP chief. Go became presidential special assistant and chief of the presidential managerial staff. Danao moved to the PNP's intelligence and criminal investigation directorates. Former PNP directorate for operations chief Camilo Cascolan took over PNP operations.
Former NBI Davao regional director Dante Gierran was promoted to head the NBI nationwide. Isidro Lapeña, a former Davao City police chief in the 1990s, was named head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. Vitaliano Aguirre II, who had served as a lawyer for Duterte and DDS members, became justice secretary.
Oscar Albayalde, the only named co-conspirator without prior Davao ties, joined the common plan during the presidential period as regional director of the National Capital Region Police Office before rising to PNP chief.
The chamber stressed that its references to these individuals were "limited to the extent strictly necessary to determine Mr Duterte's individual criminal responsibility" and "shall not be interpreted as a determination of their criminal responsibility."
