Frustration over her father’s trial in The Hague is likely behind Vice President Sara Duterte’s latest allegation against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Malacañang said, rejecting her claim as having no factual grounding.
During a Palace briefing on July 30, 2026, Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Press Officer Claire Castro addressed the Vice President’s assertion that Marcos had a hand in the International Criminal Court’s pursuit of former president Rodrigo Duterte. Castro characterized the statement as empty and without substance.
“Ang lahat po halos ng sinasabi ng Bise Presidente sa ngayon ay walang basehan, walang saysay, useless at nonsense. Maaaring ito ay kaniyang nasasabi out of frustration dahil ang kaniyang ama ngayon ay nililitis sa ICC,” Castro said.
The Palace pointed to the timeline of the case as evidence that Marcos bears no responsibility for it. The complaint against the former president traces to 2017, a period when Marcos held no public office and remained a private individual, Castro noted. On that basis, she argued, the proceedings the elder Duterte now faces cannot be laid at the current President’s feet.
Castro directed blame instead toward the former president’s own statements, referencing his acknowledgments of ordering and carrying out killings alongside others.
“Tumutupad lang ang Pangulo sa batas. Kung mayroong dapat sisihin, walang iba kung hindi ang kanyang sariling ama dahil sa mga pag-amin nito na siya mismo ay pumatay at nagpapatay, kasama ang ibang mga co-perpetrators,” she said.
The nature of the tribunal itself, Castro suggested, may be a source of the Vice President’s distress. She described the ICC as a body beyond the reach of pressure, one that could not be swayed, threatened, or subjected to force.
“Malamang ay ikinalulungkot lamang niya dahil ang ICC ay isang impartial court, hindi maaaring gamitan ng impluwensiya at hindi kayang takutin na saktan o anumang puwedeng gawing karahasan,” Castro added.
The Vice President’s remarks came a day earlier, on July 29, as she spoke to supporters gathered in The Hague. There, she named both Marcos and former senator Antonio Trillanes IV as figures within the Philippines who she claimed had enabled the international court’s move against her father.
Asked whether the government was weighing a return to the ICC, which the Philippines exited years ago, Castro indicated that no such conversations had taken place.
