Duterte Appears at ICC for First Time, Health and Fitness for Trial in Focus

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appeared in person at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the first time on Wednesday, ahead of his trial for atrocities committed during his violent “war on drugs” campaign. The 81-year-old Duterte has been in the court’s custody since his arrest in the Philippines in March 2025. He faces three charges of crimes against humanity for extrajudicial killings carried out during the anti-drug campaign, a flagship policy of his administration between 2016 and 2022. For all of the pre-trial hearings so far, including his initial appearance in March 2025, Duterte has appeared via video link from the ICC’s detention unit. He appeared yesterday before the ICC’s Trial Chamber III, which held a third status conference to discuss how to manage the sprawling case against Duterte. The Inquirer.net reported that the case involves “hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, more than 1,000 audio and video files, and an estimated 193 hours of direct examination by prosecution witnesses.” During the proceedings, Duterte sat quietly sipping water and at one point stood and waved to family ​members in the public gallery, Reuters reported. However, the physical condition of the former president, who appeared thin and haggard, raised the question of whether he will live to see a verdict – and whether he is even fit to stand trial. Duterte’s attorneys claimed last year that he was in frail health and that his condition was deteriorating in the ICC’s detention unit. In one filing in June, they argued that the ex-president’s illness and “advanced age” created “compelling humanitarian grounds” for judges to grant his interim release. In September 2025, they claimed that he was unfit to stand trial due to “cognitive impairment in multiple domains.” In January, judges rejected the defense claims, arguing that Duterte “is able effectively to exercise his procedural rights and is therefore fit to take part in the pre-trial proceedings.” They also requested his physical presence in court. However, the defendant’s advanced age and apparent ill-health are likely to remain pressing issues as the court moves toward the beginning of his trial on November 30. At Wednesday’s hearing, Presiding Judge Joanna Korner expressed concerns about the volume of evidence and the length of the prosecution case. She said the chamber was “very anxious” that the prosecution case should conclude “as swiftly as possible in the circumstances,” due to Duterte’s age and health. The trial is set to ​begin on November 30. “It’s important this trial goes ahead as quickly as possible,” ​she said, pressing parties to limit the number of witnesses and focus on key evidence. Duterte’s attorney, Peter Haynes, said that his team did not have the time to examine the tens of thousands of pieces of evidence submitted by prosecutors, calling the task “enormous ⁠and impossible.” “If I had a younger and healthier client, I would request pushing back the trial by six months,” he said, as per Reuters. Duterte is charged with the murders of at least ⁠76 people and the attempted murder of two ​others. Nineteen of the alleged murders were carried out between 2013 and 2016, when Duterte was mayor of Davao City. The remainder were committed during the “war on drugs” campaign, which Duterte launched upon becoming president in 2016. The campaign resulted in a death toll of at least 6,000 – the official estimate of the Philippine police – but independent estimates run as high as 30,000. In April of this year, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I confirmed the charges against Duterte and ordered the case to go to trial. The chamber’s judges concluded that “there are substantial grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder.” These crimes “were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population on the territory of the Republic of the Philippines.” The alleged crimes took place between November 1, 2011, and March 16, 2019, the date on which Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC’s Rome Statute.