Rodrigo Duterte has been cleared to sit out the next procedural hearing in his crimes against humanity case at the International Criminal Court, with judges signing off on his decision to stay away from the courtroom in The Hague.
The tribunal confirmed late Friday, June 19, that the former Philippine president would not appear when Trial Chamber III convenes its second status conference on Tuesday, June 23. “Mr. Duterte will not attend the second Status Conference scheduled for 23 June 2026. The accused has waived his right to attend the hearing, and the Chamber has granted the request,” the court said, adding that “The Defence is expected to file the signed waiver in the case record before the hearing.”
The session is set to run a compressed two hours, from 10 a.m. to noon in the Netherlands, a shorter window than the inaugural conference held on May 27. In Manila, that translates to a late-afternoon proceeding between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., reflecting the six-hour gap while the Netherlands observes daylight saving time.
A June 18 order from the chamber laid out what counsel will work through during the brief hearing. On the agenda are timelines for filing observations on the expert panel’s reports, a protocol governing how confidential material will be handled, a cap on the length of the prosecution’s trial brief, the calendar for status conferences once the court returns from its judicial recess, and remarks made publicly by the lawyers involved.
Judges signaled the proceeding would remain open to the public but left room to close portions of it should discussion turn to witness protection or other security-sensitive matters.
Much of the groundwork remains tied to questions over Duterte’s physical condition. The panel of experts assigned to evaluate his health must turn over its findings to the ICC Registry by Aug. 18, with the Registry then filing those reports by Aug. 24. Parties and participants have until Aug. 31 to weigh in. The chamber has held off on deciding whether the experts will be questioned in person, saying it will revisit the defense’s request for oral hearings only after the reports land.
The earlier May 27 conference dealt with disclosure of evidence, arrangements for victims’ legal representation, and the logistics of mounting a trial. From those discussions, the chamber mapped out a trial calendar running Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in The Hague, or 3:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Manila time, with testimony delivered in continuous stretches of two to four weeks broken up by adjournments lasting a week or two.
Duterte, who was taken into custody on March 11, 2025, and surrendered to The Hague the next day under an ICC warrant transmitted through an Interpol red notice, faces charges rooted in the killings carried out during his signature campaign against illegal drugs.
His defense has long disputed whether the court has any authority over him at all, pointing to the Philippines’ 2019 exit from the Rome Statute as grounds to throw out the case. The ICC has rejected that reasoning, holding that its reach covers offenses allegedly committed between Nov. 1, 2011, and March 16, 2019, the period when the country still belonged to the treaty.
