The International Criminal Court has authorized prosecutors to lock down funds confiscated from former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, even as his legal team draws a line against a separate attempt to inspect keys held by the court.
According to defense documents released Friday, Trial Chamber III sided with the prosecution in ordering a freeze on whatever cash was taken from Duterte at the time he was detained and handed to the tribunal in March 2025. The amount he was carrying when arrested has not been disclosed.
Duterte’s counsel had pushed back on the freeze before the judges ruled, arguing it served little purpose. They maintained the measure “will have no practical impact upon the existing state of affairs” given that the ICC Registry already holds the funds.
The same batch of filings revealed a broader prosecution effort to obtain access to additional belongings confiscated from the former leader. On most of those items, the defense has raised no objection to an inspection. The keys are a different matter.
Defense lawyer Peter Haynes pressed the chamber to deny prosecutors any access to the keys in the Registry’s possession, characterizing the bid as a baseless search for evidence. “The request is, in substance, a fishing expedition. The prosecution advances no evidential basis connecting the keys either to the commission or furtherance of the alleged crimes or to any assets that may be relevant to the investigation,” the team wrote in a submission first lodged on June 16.
The defense argued that justification must precede examination rather than follow it. “The basis of such a request must exist before the investigation is undertaken, not emerge as a result thereof. The prosecution cannot be permitted to examine the keys in order to articulate, post facto, the evidential foundation required to justify that examination in the first place,” it added.
The defense also called on prosecutors to shield any personal data belonging to Duterte and his family that bears no connection to the case, stating that “such information should also be destroyed or permanently deleted at the earliest possible opportunity.”
