RODRIGO DUTERTE IN ICC CUSTODY

Vice President Sara Duterte has stated that the International Criminal Court (ICC) acted outside its jurisdiction in the arrest and detention of her father, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. In an interview with RT on Wednesday, the Vice President also claimed that both her father’s legal proceedings and her own impeachment case are politically motivated, directly accusing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of wanting “to perpetuate himself or his family in power.”

Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in March 2025 at Manila’s international airport and subsequently extradited to The Hague, where he faces charges of crimes against humanity linked to his administration’s anti-drug campaign. The ICC asserts jurisdiction over the case, citing the Philippines’ membership from 2011 to 2019. However, Vice President Duterte argues the court’s actions are illegitimate, pointing out that the Philippines officially withdrew from the ICC in March 2019, and the investigation commenced two years after that withdrawal. She has also questioned whether the number of alleged murders in the ICC case meets the threshold for a crimes against humanity charge.

Vice President Duterte criticized the court for denying her father’s petition for interim release, suggesting the organization serves political interests. She emphasized that her 80-year-old father is not a flight risk and is in poor health, stating, “He is at his thinnest. He has no appetite, he is suffering from the cold, and he longs to be with family and familiar faces.”

According to the Vice President, her father’s case before the ICC is politically motivated, intended to weaken her and the political opposition. She asserted, “They think that if they take out a former president Duterte, they will weaken me because it’s one brand, it’s one family.” She claimed he was preparing to support senatorial candidates critical of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the time of his arrest.

Addressing her own political situation, Vice President Duterte alleged that the impeachment case against her is also part of a strategy to block her from running in the 2028 presidential elections. In the RT interview, she stated, “It’s all about the refusal or the intent of President Marcos. It is the intent of President Marcos not to step down. He wants to perpetuate himself or his family in power. It is clear from the moves of his administration against political opponents.” She mentioned a relative of the President who has expressed presidential ambitions, without naming individuals, though in past interviews with Philippine media, she has referred to House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, President Marcos Jr.’s cousin, in this context.

Vice President Duterte connected these alleged moves to a failed “People’s Initiative” aimed at amending the constitution to shift to a parliamentary form of government. She claimed that when that effort failed, the impeachment process against her began. She further alleged that a member of the House of Representatives publicly stated money was exchanged for signatures on the Articles of Impeachment, linking it to her status as a “frontrunner” in the 2028 presidential race based on surveys.

President Marcos Jr. and Vice President Duterte ran as a tandem in the 2022 national elections. However, their political alliance strained, with the Vice President eventually resigning from the President’s Cabinet in mid-2024, citing “toxic” relations with the Chief Executive and his allies.

Last year, the Office of the Vice President faced scrutiny over its alleged spending of confidential funds, with an investigating panel reporting that Duterte’s office spent over a hundred million pesos in 11 days. In December, Duterte also publicly stated she had “contracted someone to assassinate the President and some of his family members” if an alleged plot against her succeeded. The House of Representatives voted to impeach Duterte in February over corruption allegations and for supposedly threatening the President, but the impeachment process remains in limbo in the Senate due to constitutional and procedural questions.