The legal team of former President Rodrigo Duterte has formally contested the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the case involving alleged crimes against humanity linked to his controversial war on drugs.
In a document submitted to the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I dated May 1, 2025, Duterte’s lawyers, Nicholas Kaufman and Dov Jacobs, argued that the ICC lacks legal authority over the Philippines following its official withdrawal from the Rome Statute in March 2018.
The lawyers invoked Articles 12, 13, and 19 of the Rome Statute, saying “a State must be a State Party at the time of the exercise of jurisdiction.”
“The Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute became effective on 17 March 2019. When the former Prosecutor filed her request, and the Pre-trial Chamber issued its decision, more than two years later, the preconditions to the exercise of jurisdiction could no longer be, nor were they, fulfilled,” Duterte’s lawyers said.
The defense further questioned the Prosecutor’s authority, asserting that the ICC has yet to prove it is “legally authorized to exercise jurisdiction after the Philippines’ effective withdrawal from the Rome Statute.”
“For its part, the Prosecution has consistently failed to justify why the Court should not apply the plain language of the Rome Statute. The Prosecution has, furthermore, systematically confused jurisdiction and the preconditions to the exercise of jurisdiction,” they said.
“The Defense requests the Pre-Trial Chamber find that there is no legal basis for the continuation of the proceedings against Mr. Rodrigo Roa Duterte and to order his immediate and unconditional release,” Kaufman and Jacobs wrote.
As this developed, Malacañang made it clear that it was not keen on making exhaustive analyses on the Duterte camp’s legal maneuvers at The Hague.
“Let them be,” was Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro’s reply when asked for comment on the move of the Duterte camp questioning the ICC’s jurisdiction on former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“If their defense is to assert that the ICC has no jurisdiction [over Duterte], then that’s part of due process. Let them be… whatever may be the response of the ICC on this, it’s up to the ICC,” she said in a mixture of Filipino and English.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Duterte’s defense team challenges ICC jurisdiction.”