There are many victims of President Duterte's drug war whose families have been crying out for justice for many years. Finally, in 2025, Duterte was imprisoned at the ICC where he currently awaits trial for crimes against humanity. His daughter Sara, who is the current Vice President, has been his most vocal supporter going so far as to call his arrest a kidnapping.
Not only does she want to break him out of prison but she believes his prosecution will be "not useful" because it will be taking place in the Netherlands and not the Philippines.
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| https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/10/14/desire-for-ex-pres-duterte-to-held-accountable-for-drug-war-deaths-not-useful-vp-sara-1608 |
The latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that most Filipinos want former President Rodrigo Duterte to be held accountable in drug war killings under his administration is currently "not useful" to the Philippines, Vice President Sara Duterte said on Tuesday.
Based on the commissioned SWS poll released on Monday, out of 1,500 adult Filipinos surveyed late last month, half or 50 percent agreed that Duterte should face accountability for the drug war deaths.
Meanwhile, 32 percent disagreed and 15 percent were undecided.
But in an interview in Zamboanga City, the vice president said this would not be useful for the country since her father's trial would be held at The Hague in The Netherlands.
"It is not useful here in our country because the case is not happening here so I guess that is for the ICC court to think about if at all that is what they are basing it on," the Vice President said.
"So, it's not useful for the Philippines since President Duterte's trial is not happening here," she said.Duterte refused to answer questions related to her father's rejected interim release, saying she would rather wait for the ICC's decision on their appeal before making any comments.
"Whatever it is – sorry, I don't comment on the ICC," she noted.The ICC last week rejected the request from Duterte's defense team for his interim release on medical grounds.
The former president has been charged with crimes against humanity by the ICC for his alleged involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his "war on drugs."
Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11, flown to the Netherlands that same night and has been held at the ICC's detention unit at Scheveningen Prison in The Hague since.
He was ashamed just because he, Raskolnikov, had so hopelessly, stupidly come to grief through some decree of blind fate, and must humble himself and submit to "the idiocy" of a sentence, if he were anyhow to be at peace.
Vague and objectless anxiety in the present, and in the future a continual sacrifice leading to nothing—that was all that lay before him. And what comfort was it to him that at the end of eight years he would only be thirty-two and able to begin a new life! What had he to live for? What had he to look forward to? Why should he strive? To live in order to exist?
I noted earlier that Sara Duterte has referred to her father's arrest as a kidnapping and how she wishes to break him out of prison. That has not set well with the court and, as a result, they have decided to keep him detained.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/10/11/2479121/dutertes-children-factored-icc-decision-keep-him-detained |
Remarks by Vice President Sara Duterte and the political role of her brother, Davao City Vice Mayor Sebastian Duterte, were among the reasons cited by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in denying former president Rodrigo Duterte’s request for temporary release from detention.
In a 23-page ruling made public Friday, October 11, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I said Duterte remains a flight risk, a potential threat to witnesses, and at risk of committing the same crimes for which he is charged if freed.
While those are some the main reasons cited, the court also found that his children’s public statements and positions of authority reinforced those risks, explaining that his continued detention is required to ensure his appearance at proceedings.
The ICC ruling cited public remarks by Sara, who told supporters in July that she would break her father of detention and accused the ICC of relying on fake witnesses.
The court said these statements, as well as her later claim that her father wished to return to Davao City if released, contradicted the defense’s assertion that Duterte would remain in the host country designated by the court.
“The foregoing illustrates Mr. Duterte's rejection of the proceedings against him before the Court, and the will of his close family to help him elude detention and prosecution,” the judges wrote.
The ruling also pointed to Duterte’s enduring political influence, which remains strong through his family’s high-ranking positions. The court noted Baste's current role as acting mayor of Davao City, one of the sites of alleged extrajudicial killings. His influence amplifies the risk that the elder Duterte could use local networks to evade justice, the court said.
"Considering Mr. Duterte’s son’s position of power in the Philippines at one of the locations of the crimes alleged," the chamber said, "this risk continues to exist even if Mr. Duterte would be released to a location outside the geographic scope of the alleged crimes."
Heath arguments rebuffed. The decision, dated September 26, rebuffed defense arguments that Duterte’s age and medical condition justified interim release.
His lawyers submitted medical reports claiming cognitive decline and frailty, but the ICC said the documents failed to show that his health eliminates the risks of flight or obstruction.
The chamber also rejected 16 proposed conditions for release — including electronic monitoring, restricted movement and communication limits — finding them insufficient given the risks cited.
Judges noted that the unnamed country offering to host Duterte lacked the infrastructure to enforce electronic tracking, which even the defense described as "essential."
Next in the case. The denial marks a significant setback for the Duterte family’s efforts to bring the former president home as he awaits trial for alleged crimes against humanity related to thousands of drug war killings.
Victims' families and their lawyers had opposed his release, saying he still commands the political machinery to intimidate witnesses and influence proceedings.
The confirmation of charges hearing, originally scheduled for September 23, has been postponed as independent medical experts assess Duterte’s fitness to stand trial — a separate matter from his eligibility for release.
For now, the court ruled, detention remains necessary.
As the Bible says, the mouths of fools poureth our foolishness, Proverbs 15:2. Sara was told by an ICC accredited lawyer to keep quiet.
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| https://globalnation.inquirer.net/270870/dutertes-lawyers-not-vp-sara-should-discuss-icc-case |
Vice President Sara Duterte should stop making public comments about the case of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and leave it to their lawyers instead, a lawyer accredited by the court said on Sunday.
The younger Duterte over the weekend questioned the widely reported figure of 30,000 drug war deaths during her father’s administration, saying the prosecution’s claims were far from the 181 pieces of evidence submitted to the ICC.
“It will do well for the Vice President to leave [it] to her father’s lawyers to do the talking on the merits of the ICC case instead of spouting foul words that only boomerang and apply to her,” ICC-accredited lawyer Joel Butuyan told the Inquirer.
“The ICC case is not about proving the murder of 30,000 Filipinos but about the decision by her father in ordering police forces to use extrajudicial killing as a solution to the illegal drugs problem,” he said.
“The ICC case is not a prosecution against ordinary police and their agents who pulled the trigger that resulted in 30,000 murders. Instead, it is a prosecution against the monster masterminds who ordered triggers to be pulled in order to implement the mass murder of suspected drug personalities,” he pointed out.
But she just couldn't hold her tongue. Truly she is her father's worst enemy.
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