Malacañang declined to issue any comment on the International Criminal Court (ICC) formally charging former President Rodrigo Duterte with murder and attempted murder.
“No reaction,” Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Atty. Claire Castro said in a Wednesday briefing when asked about the matter.
The ICC prosecution has filed charges linking Duterte to 49 incidents of murder and attempted murder, citing both his time as mayor of Davao City and later as President of the Philippines during the controversial war on drugs.
A document signed by ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang stated: “The Prosecution charges the murders and attempted murders below, although the actual scale of victimization during the charged period was significantly greater, as reflected in the widespread nature of the attack.”
The charges are divided into three counts. The first accuses Duterte of crimes against humanity tied to killings in Davao City between 2013 and 2016. The second covers the deaths of so-called “high-value targets” nationwide between 2016 and 2017. The third involves killings and attempted killings during barangay clearance operations between 2016 and 2018, most of which resulted in fatalities.
Meanwhile, Vice President Sara Duterte raised alarm over what she described as a “disturbing” incident involving Philippine Embassy officials in The Hague. She claimed her father was interviewed under the guise of a “welfare check” inside the detention unit.
“The officials entered the detention unit under the false pretense of conducting a ‘welfare check’ and interviewed FPRRD. The said officials clearly abused the rule of the detention unit concerning consular visits,” the Vice President said.
She warned that if such actions continue, both the ICC and the Philippine government would have to be held accountable “for any harm that comes to Former President Duterte — including, should the worst happen, his death in custody as a direct result of these intrusions.”
