Overview
- A judge at the International Criminal Court fixed the start of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s trial for 30 November 2026 after prosecutors confirmed three counts of crimes against humanity.
- ICC prosecutors say the case focuses on at least 76 killings between 2013 and 2018 and that they plan to call between 60 and 70 witnesses to testify.
- Duterte’s defence has asked for additional medical examinations of his fitness to stand trial, saying his health has declined despite an earlier hearing that found him fit to proceed.
- On Wednesday the Philippine Catholic Church and civil society groups launched a five-member Commission of Truth that will begin public hearings in late July to compile testimony and a public record of extrajudicial killings.
- The case occurs against a backdrop of widely differing casualty estimates—human-rights groups put deaths at up to about 30,000 while police acknowledge roughly 6,000—and follows the Philippines’ 2019 withdrawal from the ICC with the court retaining jurisdiction for alleged crimes from 2011 to 2019.