Duterte defense still cries betrayal, victims’ counsel calls detention ‘accountability’

A year into former President Rodrigo Duterte’s detention in The Hague, his defense team still calls his arrest and incarceration a government betrayal.  But the counsel for the victims of the former leader's war on drugs sees it as a step toward accountability.

“It is exactly one year since the former President was betrayed by the incumbent government and denied the ability to defend his legacy under the law of the Philippines,” lawyer Nicholas Kaufman said told GMA Integrated News.

“As far as I'm concerned, he’s being illegally detained here, and he should go back to the Philippines as soon as possible," he said earlier.

Kaufman previously expressed hope that the International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber I will dismiss the charges and to give back the Filipino people “their Tatay Digong.” 

When asked to respond to Kaufman’s remark, lawyers Joel Butuyan and Gilbert Andres, the court-appointed Common Legal Representatives of Victims (CLRV), hit back and said Duterte’s surrender to the ICC is the victims’ “first step towards justice and truth for their murdered loved ones."

“And while Mr. Duterte enjoys the presumption of innocence and is afforded his right to a fair trial under international law, our clients’ loved ones were summarily sentenced to death without the benefit of trial,” part of their statement read.

“The families of Mr. Duterte can visit him and hug him, [but] our clients can only touch the cold graves of their murdered loved ones. Thus, the victims pray that the Filipino people respect and join the victims’ quest for truth and justice for their murdered loved ones.”

The Office of Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV) also emphasized the need for the public discourse to remain respectful “of the justice system and of all individuals who may be affected by these proceedings, in particular, the victims who have greatly suffered because of the crimes allegedly committed.”

“[The victims’] pain is not symbolic—it is real, ongoing, and deserving of the same public attention and respect. Our responsibility as lawyers is to ensure that victims’ voices remain central, their rights protected, and their suffering neither forgotten nor dismissed in the process,” OPCV Principal Counsel Paolina Massidda told GMA Integrated News.

Tired cliche?

The former president was flown by a chartered plane to Rotterdam on March 11, 2025, and later turned over to the custody of the ICC in The Hague. He was brought before the court under a warrant of arrest for crimes against humanity for his administration’s deadly drug war.

His first and only appearance before the ICC happened on March 14, 2025. Since then, Duterte and his counsel have questioned the court’s jurisdiction over him.

The confirmation of charges hearing against him happened nearly a year later, on February 23-27, 2026.

A week before this, Duterte requested to waive his appearance and told the Pre-Trial Chamber that his “kidnapping was facilitated by the Office of the incumbent President of the Philippines with a plane specially chartered for this purpose.”

Duterte’s critics call his claim a “tired cliche [that] masks the painful reality for many Filipinos."

“True sovereignty begins at home, and if the leader himself has led the murderous assault against his own people, claims on sovereignty become misleading, empty declarations,” Joel Vega of Panagutin Network Netherlands said in a statement sent to GMA Integrated News.

“We look forward to a full-blown legal process that would weigh and examine the evidence. We, Filipinos living in the Netherlands, share the common ideals of our European friends who believe in justice and respect for human rights," he said.

Messages to Duterte

Duterte supporters in the Netherlands and Europe have tried to visit him at Scheveningen Prison since his detention, but have been denied entry by the prison authorities.

During his first days in detention, some supporters deposited letters in the prison mailbox or spoke directly with the former president’s visiting relatives.

Most recently, during the charge confirmation hearing, Duterte supporters who gathered outside the ICC welcomed the former president’s lawyers to their potluck and invited them to speak in live streams.

Kaufman acknowledged the “correspondence of the many thousands of citizens”, saying the defense has made Duterte “personally aware” of these messages.

“We can only beg forgiveness for not replying to each and every concerned person individually. Please channel your love and support for the former President lawfully and peacefully. Let the former President’s 81st birthday–28 March 2026 –be a day to remember.”

For ICC Assistant to Counsel Kristina Conti, Duterte’s current situation places him in a “soft era [of] self-reflection and peace."

“Victims of the ‘war on drugs’ have always wished for Duterte many more birthdays to come–may he live long enough to see justice served for all,” Conti told GMA Integrated News.

Anti-Duterte community groups in Europe also called for remembrance of the alleged extrajudicial victims of Duterte’s drug war.

“Even while others celebrate, we at the Duterte Panagutin Network Europe are here to remember the thousands of victims and families whose voices need to be heard. Birthdays are a privilege denied to the victims of the war on drugs,” Icai Enriquez, the convenor of the Duterte Panagutin Network inthe European Union, told GMA Integrated News.

Current litigation in the Duterte case

As the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber is deciding on the merits of last month’s charge confirmation hearing, one of the ongoing proceedings in Duterte’s case centers on the Office of the Prosecution’s (OTP) question to clarify the roles of Filipino lawyers in the defense counsel line-up.

The OTP said the presence of lawyers Salvador Medialdea, Salvador Panelo, Martin Delgra, Silvestre Bello III, Alfredo Lim Jr., and Cesar Dulay has “created the impression that [they] are members of Mr Duterte’s defence team."

Kaufman told GMA Integrated News that they have already submitted a confidential reply to the OTP’s challenge, “keeping with the Prosecution’s original confidential version.”

“The judges are refusing to reclassify it as public,” he added.

When asked for a statement, ICC Spokesperson Oriane Maillet told GMA Integrated News that she “only has access to public documents” and that “we cannot speculate on the decision of judges”.

For now, the ICC Registry website has not yet updated the list of public documents for the Duterte case.

OPCV’s Massida, meanwhile, said that while Duterte’s defense team is “entitled to advocate for their client, it is equally important to acknowledge that legal proceedings do not exist solely for the benefit of the defendant.”

“Ultimately, the judges of the ICC—not public sentiment—will determine the legal merits of the case,” she added. —LDF, GMA Integrated News