FFPS Statement On Postponement Of Duterte ICC Hearing

Support the victims of Duterte’s and Marcos’ crimes in their urgent demands for justice and accountability!

Friends of the Filipino People in Struggles (FFPS) expresses its dismay in the delay of the International Criminal Court (ICC) trial of Rodrigo Duterte for the crimes against humanity that he committed while President of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022.

On 8 September 2025, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC), decided (with Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera dissenting) to postpone the commencement of the confirmation hearing in the case of The Prosecutor vs. Rodrigo Roa Duterte. The hearing had been initially scheduled to start on 23 September 2025. Duterte’s lawyers had asked for an indefinite adjournment of the proceedings alleging that Mr Duterte is not fit to stand trial. The majority of the Chamber considered that a limited postponement of the hearing on the confirmation of charges was warranted to allow sufficient time to adjudicate the request and related matters.

“The people of the Philippines who suffered so much under Duterte’s so called war on drugs and his relentless attacks against all forms of dissent have waited long enough for Duterte to be held accountable for his crimes,” said Robert Reid, Global Chair of FFPS. “The international community must help ensure that Duterte does not escape justice and urgently faces accountability.”

“The demand for accountability does not stop with Duterte,” Reid continued. “The International Peoples Tribunal (IPT), which convened in Brussels in May 2024, extensively documented the crimes against humanity of both Duterte and current Philippine President Marcos. That tribunal heard and supported the calls for justice made by their victims. Both Duterte and Marcos are war criminals that should urgently be held accountable and may as well share a cell at the ICC.”

In the Philippines, Marcos has continued to uphold all policies and machineries that Duterte used to commit his war crimes, including the NTF-ELCAC and the whole-of-nation approach, and now uses these to wage another brutal war of suppression against the Filipino people. The US is complicit in these crimes through militarism and other forms of support and direction to the regimes, as exposed by both the IPT and the US’ own record.

“It is no coincidence that these charges against Duterte are being brought at a time that US imperialism continues to fund and direct wars across the globe. Because of US backing, war criminals, not just in Israel, but also in the Philippines think that they can get away with murder. A global people’s movement must continue to isolate the US to prevent its warmongering directly and through willing puppets.”

FFPS calls on the international community to support the Filipino people in ensuring that Duterte is held accountable for all his crimes. “We must support the Filipino peoples calls for justice, their demands for accountability and support their struggles against US foreign domination and the Marcos regime, its current number one war criminal in the Philippines,” Robert Reid concluded.

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