LIVE UPDATES: Rodrigo Duterte confirmation of charges hearing at ICC (Feb. 27, 2026)

Defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman said it is up to the judges of the International Criminal Court to rule on the case against former President Rodrigo Duterte, stressing that the proceedings were not a “show” but a legal process grounded in evidence.

“The judges will take their decision based on the evidence,” Kaufman said after the conclusion of the confirmation of charges hearing. “The evidence has been presented by the prosecution and challenged by us, the defense, and we trust the judges to take the right decision.”

The judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber I are expected to issue a ruling within 60 days.

After almost 10 years of grief, fear, and waiting, families of those killed in the bloody war on drugs finally felt a sense of relief as the pre-trial hearing for the confirmation of charges against former President Rodrigo Duterte concluded on Friday at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

For many of them, the confirmation of charges hearing was not just a legal proceeding but a long-overdue moment of recognition, where their pain, stories, and loss were finally heard.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecution and the victims’ counsel on Friday urged the continued detention of former President Rodrigo Duterte amid his crimes against humanity case, citing the waiving of his rights to attend the pre-trial proceedings.

At the first annual review of the former president's detention, ICC Prosecutor and Senior Trial Lawyer Julian Nicholls pointed out that Duterte, in waiving his right to attend his four-day confirmation of charges hearings, said he did not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.

Nicholas Kaufman, former President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal counsel on Friday labeled as unfair the redactions on the live broadcast of the International Criminal Court (ICC) during Duterte's confirmation of charges.

In his closing remarks, Kaufman said he found the redactions “unfair and contrary to the spirit of transparency." He said that his submissions on the merits would require him to go into closed session.

International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor and Senior Trial Lawyer Julian Nicholls on Friday questioned former President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal counsel if he was calling his client a liar and a perjurer as he recalled Duterte’s admission under oath that he had a death squad.

In October 2024, Duterte admitted before a Senate subcommittee that he instructed police officials to "encourage" criminals to fight so they would have a reason to kill them.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte has said that he has “accepted his fate” and the possibility that he might die in prison amid the murder and frustrated murder charges he is facing before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his drug war, lawyer Nicholas Kaufman said Friday.

“I was a faithful servant of the people, and that is how I wish to be remembered. I have now accepted my fate, and I realize I could die in prison,” Kaufman quoted Duterte as saying in the defense counsel's closing remarks.

The Dahas Project of the Third World Studies Center at the University of the Philippines (UP) clarified that while deaths linked to the anti-drug campaign have decreased under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., they have not stopped.

According to Joseph Morong’s "24 Oras" report on Friday, the group was reacting to remarks made by Nicholas Kaufman, former President Rodrigo Duterte's defense counsel, before the International Criminal Court, where he described the drug-related killings under Marcos as “sky-high." He then questioned why the representatives of alleged victims of the Duterte administration's drug war were not clamoring for accountability for the killings under the current administration.

The Duterte administration did not prosecute the police officers allegedly responsible for 3,967 government-acknowledged drug war killings, a lawyer for the victims in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity case told the International Criminal Court on Friday.

Lawyer Gilbert Andres said that there was also no motu proprio investigation into the deaths during the police operations, which was mandated by the Philippine National Police (PNP) Revised Operational Procedures issued in 2013.

For the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecution, every argument given by former President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal team was proof that his crimes against humanity case must proceed to trial. 

In his closing remarks, ICC Prosecutor and Senior Trial Lawyer Julian Nicholls thanked Duterte’s lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, for their submissions on the case's merits.

“Everything he said, literally this morning, showed why this case should go to trial and that we have met the standard of substantial grounds for confirmation,” Nicholls said.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte's legal counsel said Friday that the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecution provided no proof of any other minor victims of the Duterte administration’s drug war, aside from 17-year-old Kian delos Santos.

“Apart from Kian delos Santos, the Prosecution has not, despite its emphasis on children, presented to this chamber during these proceedings any evidence that even one victim, apart from Kian, in its 49 incidents was a minor,” layer Nicholas Kaufman said.

“No birth certificate, no corroborative evidence, nothing,” he added.