Senators Christopher “Bong” Go and Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa —PHOTOS FROM BONG GO AND RONALD BATO DELA ROSA FB

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has named Senators Christopher “Bong” Go and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa as well as other former ranking government officials as co-perpetrators of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs.” Go ranked first and Dela Rosa third in the midterm senatorial elections last year.

As chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) from July 2016 to April 2018, Dela Rosa was the main implementor of Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign. He also served as chief of the Davao City Police from January 2012 to October 2013. 

Go was a longtime aide to Duterte when he was mayor of Davao City and took the role of special assistant from June 2016 to October 2018 during his presidency. 

The others named by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) as part of the “hierarchy” of Duterte’s drug war are: former PNP chief Camilo Cascolan (now deceased), former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde, former Davao City police chief Vicente Danao, former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) chief Dante Gierran, and former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Isidro Lapeña. 

Gierran also served as NBI regional director of Davao from 2013 to 2016. Lapeña was chief of the Davao City Police from 1996 to 1998.

There are other ranking government officials including from the PNP on the list, but the OTP did not name them.

‘Common plan’

“At least between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019, DUTERTE and his co-perpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralise’ alleged criminals in the Philippines (including those perceived or alleged to be associated with drug use, sale or production) through violent crimes including murder,” the OTP said in a document made public on Feb. 14, a “lesser redacted” version of its preconfirmation brief on July 24, 2025.

The document also stated that during Duterte’s term as mayor, he, together with Go and other officials mentioned, “used police from Davao City and non-police hitmen” such as the Davao Death Squad to kill alleged criminals.

“In their new geographically expanded roles, the co-perpetrators controlled the will of the physical perpetrators through a mechanism that ensured their automatic compliance with their orders,” the document read.

In a Facebook post, human rights lawyer and ICC assistant to counsel Kristina Conti said the inclusion of Dela Rosa, Go, and former officials close to Duterte showed that “the plan was crafted not only to ensure implementation, but to ensure impunity.”

“The involvement of those in the investigating units, which should have acted as the killings happened, is material to the plan. This also emphasizes that the ‘war on drugs’ began in Davao,” Conti said. 

Out of the public eye

In March 2025, shortly after Duterte was arrested on charges of crimes against humanity and taken into ICC custody, Dela Rosa said he was “ready to join” and “take care” of the ex-president in The Hague in the Netherlands. 

But Dela Rosa has not been reporting for work at the Senate and has been out of the public eye since November, when Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla made a yet unproven statement that a warrant for his arrest had been issued by the ICC. Dela Rosa has yet to make a public statement on the latest development. 

Go issued a statement on Saturday, saying: “I dispute these allegations, which are entirely unfounded, one-sided, unfair, and bear no relation to the reality of my roles and responsibilities during my service as Special Assistant to the President from June 2016 to October 2018, as well as Executive Assistant to the Mayor of Davao City from 1998 to 2016.” 

According to Go, he has upheld the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and dedication for the people throughout his career in public service.

“I will not allow these baseless accusations to distract me from my responsibilities as a duly elected Senator of the Republic. My focus remains steadfastly on serving the Filipino people—particularly the poor and vulnerable,” he said. 

Former justice secretary Aguirre also denied involvement in the extrajudicial killings in Duterte’s drug war on Saturday. The other named co-perpetrators have yet to issue a statement as of this writing.

In March 2025, ex-PNP chief Albayalde said he was preparing for a possible warrant of arrest from the ICC and would exhaust all legal remedies. 

‘Completely lacking in truth’

In a statement on Saturday, Duterte’s lead legal counsel Nicholas Kaufman said “the Prosecution has now revealed the names of what it alleges to be criminal co-perpetrators—something that we will prove to be completely lacking in truth.”

“None of these co-perpetrators are, in my opinion, currently subject to arrest warrants,” he said.

Duterte has been deemed fit to stand trial at the ICC and is expected to appear at the confirmation of charges hearing scheduled to begin on Feb. 23. 

First published in CoverStory – February 15, 2026

Families of drug war victims watch livestream of the International Criminal Court’s dismissal of Rodrigo Duterte’s appeal on Wednesday, April 22. —PHOTOS BY BULLIT MARQUEZ

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled on Wednesday that the court had jurisdiction over the case against former president Rodrigo Duterte, keeping him in detention in the Netherlands and bringing him closer to a possible trial for crimes against humanity for his brutal war on drugs in the Philippines.

The ICC may exercise jurisdiction in the Duterte case for the alleged crimes committed in the Philippines from Nov. 1, 2011, to March 16, 2019, when it was still a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court, according to the chamber’s decision.

Duterte, 81, has been detained in an ICC prison facility in The Hague since he was arrested and flown to the Dutch city on March 12, 2025. He is accused of crimes against humanity of murder for the thousands of mostly poor Filipinos summarily killed during his antidrug campaign from the time he was mayor of Davao City until the first half of his six-year term as president.

The Duterte government reported that the bloody campaign left over 6,200 dead in police operations. Human rights groups say the number was closer to 30,000.

The Appeals Chamber rejected all the arguments presented by Duterte’s lawyers that there was no legal basis for the continuation of the proceedings against him. It said that it considered his demand for “immediate and unconditional release moot.”

Rome Statute

Duterte and his lawyers contended that the Philippines was no longer a party to the Rome Statute when he was arrested in Manila and handed to the ICC in The Hague.

On March 17, 2018, Manila informed the ICC that it was withdrawing from the Rome Statute on orders of Duterte, who was angered by the initiation of an investigation of alleged extrajudicial killings in his drug war by the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC. Under the statute, the withdrawal took effect on March 16, 2019, a year after the Duterte government’s notification.

In a statement, the ICC said the Appeals Chamber observed that the Rome Statute “must be interpreted in a systemic manner and in line with the object and purpose of the statute, which is to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.”

“It ruled that it would be incompatible with this object and purpose to enable a State Party to evade its responsibilities under the Statute by depositing a written notice of withdrawal once it discovers that alleged crimes committed on its territory or by its nationals are being examined by the Prosecution,” it said.

In other words, the ICC, citing the treaty itself, warns that withdrawing from the statute is not an escape route to avoid prosecution and possible conviction of crimes against humanity.

Duterte waiver

In a letter to the court two weeks earlier, Duterte waived his right to attend Wednesday’s hearing where Presiding Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza read a summary of the ruling of the five-member Appeals Chamber.

The announcement of the decision was received with loud cheers by family members of victims of the drug war who watched the live broadcast of the proceedings at the University of the Philippines College of Law in Quezon City, some of them in tears.

Many of them carried pictures of their slain loved ones and placards saying, “Tuloy ang Laban” (Onward with the Struggle) and “Confirm the Charges vs Duterte.” They chanted, “Duterte Panagutin” (Hold Duterte Accountable), holding up pictures of an angry Duterte.

Family members and human rights group, Karapatan, celebrate the ICC decision.

Joining the celebration was the human rights group, Karapatan, which issued a statement calling the ICC decision “a monumental victory for justice and a definitive blow against the culture of impunity.”

It said that the ICC had signaled that “justice cannot be outrun by political maneuvering and lies.”

“Today, the Appeals Chamber chose the side of the victims over the side of the perpetrators,” it said. “We remain steadfast in standing in solidarity with the victims of Duterte’s crimes. The path to justice is long, but today, it became significantly shorter.”

Confirmation of charges

After the resolution of the jurisdiction issue, the remaining ICC process prior to a possible trial, is the ruling on the confirmation of charges against Duterte, which is expected before or by the end of April.

The confirmation of charges was heard over four days last February. 

If the Pre-Trial Chamber I (PTC I) rules to confirm the charges, or a finding that there is basis to try Duterte, he will undergo a full-blown trial, which he must attend, according to court rules. A Trial Chamber will be established for this.

If PTC I decides there is not enough evidence to proceed, Duterte will be set free.

Duterte’s lead counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, said that from a legal perspective, the decision failed to clarify “the threshold for when an amorphous preliminary examination becomes a matter before the court.”

“As it would now appear, an investigation may be opened, post-withdrawal, not just one year down the line but even 20 years down the line,” he said in a statement after the ruling.

‘State-sponsored policy’

During the four-day confirmation of charges hearing, which is intended to establish “substantial grounds to believe” that Duterte committed the crimes he is accused of, the prosecution argued that the antidrug campaign was a “state-sponsored policy” to target civilians labeled as drug offenders, without due process.

The prosecutors said Duterte played a pivotal role in the killings by personally authorizing operations, hand-picking some of the victims himself. They presented his public pronouncements and declarations to “kill” suspects wantonly, creating a culture of impunity that encouraged state and non-state actors to conduct assassinations.

The defense, however, insisted that the charges were baseless and that there was no direct evidence linking Duterte’s public statements or policies to specific victims. It asserted that his prosecution was politically motivated and that the court interfered in the domestic affairs of the Philippines.

In the end Kaufman appealed for Duterte’s release on humanitarian grounds, saying that he was frail, aging and ailing.

“I tried to engage him concerning the evidence. And he lost the desire to follow me within less than a minute,” Kaufman told PTC I on Feb. 27, during the last day of the confirmation of charges hearing.

“How does the prosecution say that I did this? I’ve never murdered anyone,” he quoted Duterte as saying. “I was a faithful servant of the people, and that is how I wish to be remembered. I have now accepted my fate and I realized that I could die in prison.”

Edre U. Olalia, president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and chair of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, said in a message to Duterte that he could not escape from the consequences of his actions.

“You must accept the reality that you have to be accountable and that your imagined invincibility for the longest time has been shattered not by disingenuous populism nor fleeting power but by inevitable perdition,” Olalia said. CS

First published in CoverStory – April 23, 2026

Former president Rodrigo Duterte during a senate hearing in October 2024 —PHOTO FROM PNA

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague delivered a one-two punch to former president Rodrigo Duterte last week, nearly 10 years after he took office and unleashed his brutal “war on drugs” across the Philippines. 

The first blow landed on April 22, when the ICC Appeals Chamber upheld the October 2025 Pre-Trial Chamber I (PTC I) decision affirming the court’s jurisdiction over his case. The second came the next day, when the three-member PTC I unanimously confirmed charges that he had committed crimes against humanity.

These decisions set the stage for his trial on allegations that he was chiefly responsible for thousands of extrajudicial killings in his centerpiece anticrime program that began when he was the mayor of Davao City. The decisions were made a decade after he expanded his iron-fisted campaign from his hometown to the rest of the country when he took office as president on June 30, 2016.

The ICC presidency moved quickly to constitute the trial chamber. On April 24, it designated Nicolas Guillou of France, Joanna Korner of the United Kingdom and Keebong Paek of South Korea as members of Trial Chamber III. The announcement of the appointments was made public on April 28.

Duterte is charged with the crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder in at least 49 incidents that victimized 78 individuals, including two mayors—Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte, and Reynaldo Parohinog of Ozamiz City—whom he had named as drug lords before they were killed.

The case against Duterte covers the period from Nov. 1, 2011, to March 16, 2019, when the Philippines was still a state party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC.

Duterte ordered the withdrawal of the Philippines from the statute after he learned that the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) began on Feb. 8, 2018, a “preliminary examination” of extrajudicial killings in his drug war. That was less than a year after lawyer Jude Sabio submitted the first “communication,” or complaint, alleging “mass murder” in the drug war in the Philippines in April 2017. Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV and his fellow Magdalo party mate, former representative Gary  Alejano, filed a “supplemental” communication in June 2017. The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) submitted a communication on behalf of the families of the drug war victims in August 2018.

Despite Manila’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the preliminary examination continued and the official investigation of Duterte’s drug war by the OTP was authorized by the PTC I in September 2021.

Under Article 127 of the statute, a state is deemed withdrawn one year after it files a notification to withdraw. That state, however, has the duty to cooperate with “any criminal investigations and proceedings” if these involve “any matter” which is already under the ICC’s “consideration” before the withdrawal took effect.

No ‘matter’ under consideration

Duterte’s lawyers argued that when he was arrested in the Philippines and flown to The Hague in the Netherlands on March 12, 2025, and placed under ICC detention, the Philippines was no longer a state party to the statute. 

Moreover, they insisted that there wasn’t any “matter” under consideration because the OTP’s official investigation came after Manila’s withdrawal had become effective. They said the “preliminary examination” of the situation in the Philippines doesn’t qualify as a “matter” under consideration because it was an unofficial or internal process.

The Appeals Chamber rejected all the arguments of Duterte and his lawyers that there was no legal basis to continue the ICC proceedings against him and that he should be released immediately.

In its April 22 ruling, the chamber said the Rome Statute “must be interpreted in a systemic manner and in line with the object and purpose of the statute, which is to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.”

It ruled that the defense’s interpretation of Article 127 would be “incompatible” with the “object and purpose” of the ICC if it allows a state party to “evade its responsibilities under the Statute” by withdrawing from the treaty after it discovered that alleged crimes committed within its territory by its nationals are being examined by the prosecution.

It noted the PTC I’s conclusion that there was “a direct relationship between the Prosecutor’s announcement of the opening of the preliminary examination and the decision of the Philippines to withdraw from the Statute.”

This was the same position taken by the Philippine Supreme Court in an obiter dictum (a legal opinion that is not binding but persuasive) when it ruled to declare as “moot” a petition against Manila’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute. It was, in a way, a cautionary note by the high court to the government: that it may withdraw from the ICC, but it continues to be liable for any crimes under the tribunal’s domain while it is  still a party to the Rome Statute.

Public warning

The Appeals Chamber’s ruling on jurisdiction could also be seen as a public warning to all other state parties that withdrawing from the statute is not an escape hatch to evade prosecution.

Raul Pangalangan, a former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law and the only Filipino so far to have served as an ICC judge, said in an interview with CoverStory in March 2025 that “ordinarily, a party may challenge jurisdiction only once.”

Duterte’s chief lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, conceded that jurisdiction “has been settled” and that it was “the end of the road” as far as that issue was concerned. Speaking to reporters in The Hague in the presence of Duterte’s supporters, he said the former president was “stoical” after he informed him about the chamber’s decision.

Duterte’s supporters wave placards and Philippine flags during a rally on March 15, in Manila to express their support to the former president. —PHOTO BY BULLIT MARQUEZ

On April 23, the Pre-Trial Chamber confirmed all the charges against Duterte. He was found to have committed three counts of crimes against humanity—of murder in Davao involving 19 victims in nine incidents between 2013 and June 2016; of murder of “high-value targets” across the country, with 14 victims in five incidents between July 2016 and July 2017; and of murder (43 instances) and attempted murder (two instances) in 35 barangay “clearance operations” around the country between July 2016 and September 2018. 

The PTC I said Duterte allegedly committed these crimes over two distinct periods—from November 2011 to June 2016, when he served as vice mayor and mayor of Davao; and from July 2016 to March 2019, the first three years of his presidency.

The chamber said Duterte was responsible for the killings by co-perpetration, by ordering and inducing the bloody attacks, and by aiding and abetting the killings.

It identified the former president as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in his war on drugs along with at least eight alleged co-perpetrators that comprised the top tier of the organization that he headed and that directed the killings—first in Davao and later in the rest of the country. 

They included Senators Christopher “Bong” Go and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, a former Davao police chief and Duterte’s first Philippine National Police chief. Dela Rosa went into hiding in November 2025, after unconfirmed reports spread that the ICC had issued a warrant for his arrest. He has since been absent from Senate sessions.

Sen. Bato Dela Rosa speaks during a Senate plenary session in October 2025. —PHOTO FROM SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Davao Death Squad

The PTC I cited Duterte’s own statement during an October 2024 Senate inquiry that he had organized a death squad in Davao City. The chamber said in its decision that he “sat at the top” of the hierarchy of the Davao Death Squad (DDS).

It said the killings were an “organizational policy” of the DDS during the Davao period and became a “state policy” involving a “National Network” during Duterte’s presidency.

The PTC I, citing evidence from interviews and documents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Duterte’s co-perpetrators, said the fight against drugs and criminality would be a “scaled-up version of the ‘Davao Model’ at the national level.”

Duterte and the others participated in carrying out a “common plan” to “neutralize” crime suspects, including alleged drug offenders, in a “widespread and systematic” manner, according to the PTC I. It said “neutralize” meant kill, in the context of Duterte’s drug war.

Duterte was said to have used his authority, first as mayor and later as president, to order and induce the “physical perpetrators” or the hitmen of the DDS and the National Network to launch the bloody “common plan,” locally and nationally, through a chain of command system with him at the “apex.”

“Those who did not follow orders risked being killed and were disposed of when perceived as opposing or posing a threat to the Common Plan, however insignificant,” the PTC I said.

The chamber said Duterte’s “essential contributions” to the common plan included providing manpower and logistics, such as weapons; offering financial incentives and promotions to police officers and hitmen; creating a system in which those involved in the killings were aware of protection and immunity from investigation and prosecution; and publicly identifying alleged criminals and “high-value targets.”

The number of DDS victims in Davao has been estimated at over 1,000. On May 31, 2022, a month before Duterte stepped down as president, the government’s consolidated report on drug war deaths recorded 6,252 people killed in official antidrug operations during his presidency up to that point.

Human rights groups say the number is many times higher—12,000 to 30,000—including vigilante killings and “unexplained” deaths.

‘Double whammy’

NUPL chair Edre Olalia was hopeful that the drug war victims’ families would get justice from the ICC’s back-to-back decisions.

“With this double whammy, there is therefore rightfully and effectively no legal impediment for [Duterte] to face the music, no matter how vexing it may sound to him,” Olalia said. “The road to concrete justice now seems less long and winding for the victims and their kin.”

The Pre-Trial Chamber said Duterte’s contributions to the drug war included his public statements “authorizing, condoning and encouraging” killings of alleged drug offenders recorded in videos, transcripts and translations of his speeches, interviews and statements. These were cited also as evidence against him during the confirmation of charges hearing.

It’s “a classic case of a ‘fish caught by its mouth’,” according to NUPL president Ephraim B. Cortez.

In an interview in The Hague reported by ANC, Kaufman said the defense team would make a request for an appeal to the PTC I as he “can’t even see one piece of evidence cited in the footnotes to justify their decision.” He said he found it “rather bizarre and strange” that the chamber “didn’t find it necessary to cite any evidence” in its 50-page decision. 

Kaufman said the reversal of the PTC I decision would be up to the same judges of the chamber. “But we have to be realistic, and we are facing a trial now,” he said.

The case against Duterte was “built on the testimony of cooperating criminal witnesses of the most vicious nature,” Kaufman said.

He said the defense would prepare to cross-examine those witnesses if the prosecution presents them — “and then we will question them and show them to be the liars that they are.” CS

Read more: Duterte loses ICC appeal, remains in detention in The Hague

First published in CoverStory – May 1, 2026