The International Criminal Court (ICC) will decide on April 22 whether former president Rodrigo Duterte’s case for crimes against humanity can move forward or be blocked on jurisdictional grounds.
Duterte’s Filipino legal team is convinced that the prosecution panel’s crimes against humanity allegations have been “shattered into pieces” after lead defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman’s manifestations.
On the third day of Duterte’s confirmation of charges hearing in the International Criminal Court (ICC), Kaufman asserted that there was no direct link between Duterte and the wanton killings in the Philippines, and that the number of deaths amounted to only about 3 percent of those arrested.
“The prosecution’s theory has been shattered to pieces… because the very testimonial evidence, the documentary evidence presented by the prosecution have been thoroughly rebutted,” former Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo told reporters.
“Atty. Kaufman made a thorough job on this case. He made thorough research. He read all the speeches, he went over all the documents kaya madali niyang ma-rebut lahat ng mga alegasyon ng kabila,” he said.
“The prosecution will say maganda yung kanilang presentasyon but they are entitled to their imagined satisfaction of their presentation… In short, bagsak sila,” he added.
But human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares — who has been lawyering for drug war victims in the Philippines — rejected Panelo’s claim, saying that defense panel’s arguments are flimsy.
“It was an order, there was public vilification of targets. There was an execution of targets in broad daylight with many witness in public plazas and markets as if the perpetrators were never afraid at all of the police,” he said.
Duterte’s camp is “not successful” in its bid to chip away at the prosecution and victims’ counsels presentation, ICC Assistant to Counsel Kristina Conti said.
But for Llore Pasco, who lost her two sons to the drug war in 2017, it was wrong for the defense to trivialize their grief of losing family members.
In a chance interview after the proceedings, Kaufman said that he “felt for the old lady in the gallery who was crying.”
“I’m a human being, we’re all human beings and I don’t make light of her grief,” he said.
“Having said that, I have a job to do and my job is to defend somebody who I believe has been wrongly charged.”
The lead Defense counsel declined to comment if he is confident that he convinced the Pre-Trial Chamber I that there were insufficient evidence against the former President.
“I’m not gonna give you points, I’m not gonna give points to the prosecution or the victims or even to myself,” the British-Israeli lawyer said.
The pre-trial chamber rejected this claim in October 2025, saying jurisdiction remains because the alleged crimes were committed while the Philippines was still a member of the Rome Statute.
The panel set to decide includes Presiding Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, Judges Tomoko Akane, Solomy Balungi Bossa, Gocha Lordkipanidze and Erdenebalsuren Damdin.
Judge Lordkipanidze had ruled in Duterte’s favour in a 2023 jurisdictional dispute, while Judges Carranza and Bossa dissented. Judges Akane and Damdin are seen as the swing votes in the upcoming decision.
If the court upholds jurisdiction, the charges could proceed to trial, which prosecutors say might begin toward the end of 2026 to give both sides time to prepare.
The ICC’s week-long confirmation of charges hearing in February examined three counts of crimes against humanity, covering 78 murders and attempted murders between 2011 and 2019.
It assessed whether Duterte masterminded the killings as an indirect co-perpetrator.
