By Carlito Pablo
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte will remain in jail after the International Criminal Court denied his request to be released temporarily.
Prosecutors with the ICC earlier charged the 80-year-old Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in 76 murders.
The court previously set a hearing to confirm the charges starting on September 23, 2025. However, this process was postponed indefinitely to determine whether Duterte is fit to stand trial.
Duterte’s lawyer Nicholas Kaufman in August filed a request for indefinite adjournment, claiming his client is suffering from loss of memory.
In a filing before the ICC pre-trial chamber dated September 11, 2025, prosecutors suggested that the matter regarding Duterte’s condition should be resolved in a way that the confirmation of charges hearing can be completed before the end of 2025.
Prosecutors have also recommended to the court to tap independent specialists to evaluate the former president’s health.
They also said that these experts should likewise be mandated to determine whether Duterte is feigning or faking illness.
In a nine-page filing dated September 18, 2025 and made public October 9, ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang pushed for the creation of a multidisciplinary panel composed of at least three experts.
The filing stated that the experts’ mandate should include “an evaluation of any evidence of malingering”.
Duterte made his first appearance before the court on March 14, 2025 via video link.
During that appearance, ICC judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc noted that Duterte had been examined medically and found to be mentally fine.
Duterte’s lawyer Kaufman has claimed that his client suffers from impaired memory and is unable to retain new information or to recall events and places.
The ICC on October 10 made public its September 26, 2025 decision denying Duterte’s request for temporary release.
The court cited three grounds for Duterte’s continued detention. “The detention of Mr. Duterte 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 decision read.
The court also cited the former president’s “rejection of the proceedings” of the ICC itself and his family’s “will to help him elude detention and prosecution”.
The court likewise mentioned public remarks by Duterte’s daughter and Vice President Sara Duterte, who told supporters that she would “break [her father] out” of detention.
Duterte is detained at an ICC jail near The Hague, Netherlands.
On September 22, 2025, the ICC made public the charges against Duterte in a document that also contains redacted names of several of his alleged co-perpetrators.
In addition to individuals, the charge sheet also included “other members of the PNP and high-ranking government officials”. PNP stands for Philippine National Police.
The former president was charged with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging that he was involved in at least 76 murders.
The first count relates to the killings of 19 people in Davao City between 2013 and 2016 while he was mayor of the southern Philippine city.
The other two charges relate to times when he was serving as president of the Philippines, between 2016 and 2022.
The second count involves murders of 14 “high-value targets” across the country, and the third relates to the murder and attempted murder of 45 people in village clearance operations.
The ICC decision rejecting Duterte’s request for an interim release came days after the court on October 6, 2025 convicted Sudanese militia leader Ali Abd-Al-Rahman or Ali Kushayb of war crimes.
In a report, Esquire Philippines writer JV Ordoñez posed the question about the likelihood of Duterte suffering the same fate as the Sudanese warlord.
“The decision should definitely be a reality check,” Michael Henry Yusingco, law lecturer and senior research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center, told the lifestyle magazine in an interview.
“They (Duterte camp) should really stick to a legal defense strategy, instead of using the detention of the former (President) as content for their political narrative. They have to win in a court of law. Winning in the court of public opinion must not be their goal,” Yusingo said.
Yusingco added in the Esquire Philippines report that the ICC ruling is a reminder that a Duterte conviction is a distinct possibility.
ReyFort Media 
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