The Manila Times

ICC defense seeks trial safeguards in Duterte drug war case

MANILA, Philippines — Lawyers for former president Rodrigo Duterte filed submissions Friday at the International Criminal Court (ICC) urging judges to adopt tighter rules governing evidence and witness testimony as the court prepares for his trial on charges related to the country's anti-drug campaign. The nine-page filing, submitted by lead counsel Peter Haynes KC ahead of a court-imposed deadline, proposed six amendments to the procedural framework that Trial Chamber III plans to adopt for the case. The defense's central concern is preventing the trial record from becoming bloated with irrelevant material. Citing the Chamber's own criticism of a prior ICC case — the Al-Rahman prosecution — in which judges complained that "unnecessary and irrelevant evidence was dumped into the court record." Haynes argued for a hybrid approach to evidence admission that would allow judges to rule on the admissibility of key documents at the time they are presented, rather than deferring all such decisions. The filing also pushed back against how prosecution witness evidence has been disclosed. With the prosecution indicating it plans to call between 26 and 41 witnesses and still holding roughly 13,000 items pending review for potential disclosure, the defense asked the court to require organized topic-by-topic breakdowns for all witnesses whose prior testimony was recorded in interview transcripts — not just the five witnesses the prosecution volunteered to summarize. On cross-examination, the defense sought a rule clarifying that failing to challenge a witness on every disputed point should not automatically cause the Chamber to discount impeaching evidence. Given the volume of lengthy prior statements already on record, Haynes argued it would be "unrealistic" and inefficient to require counsel to put every contested detail to each witness in open court. The defense further requested that only the specific portions of large documents actually addressed by a witness — such as call data records, lengthy reports, or extended video footage — be formally entered into evidence through that witness, rather than entire documents being admitted wholesale. Duterte, 80, was transferred to ICC custody in 2025. He faces charges of crimes against humanity in connection with thousands of killings carried out during his administration's war on drugs between 2016 and 2019.