MANILA, Philippines – The International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber I, in a decision on Thursday, May 21, denied former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s request to appeal the chamber’s ruling that confirmed his ICC cases last month.

By doing so, the pre-trial chamber denied the former president’s latest attempt to delay his trial.

In April, the pre-trial chamber confirmed all three counts of Duterte’s crimes against humanity case, thus sending him to the trial stage that could start as early as this November.

Duterte cannot go directly to the ICC appeals chamber to question the pre-trial chamber’s decision, unlike in other decisions. This was why he had to file a request for leave or request authorization to file the appeal.

In their March 29 request, Duterte’s lawyers raised two questions on the confirmation of charges decision:

• First issue: whether the pre-trial chamber erred in adopting a “flexible approach and overbroadly delineating the scope of the charges”;
• Second issue: whether the court erred in law “by failing to articulate a reasoned evidentiary basis for confirming the charges.”

On the first issue, Duterte’s camp said the decision is appealable because of the chamber’s doing, the defense lawyers were unable to determine “whether and which” incidents fall within the circumstances of the ICC cases against Duterte.

However, the ICC pre-trial chamber said this did “not constitute an appealable issue.”

Meanwhile, on the second issue, the Duterte camp said the chamber allegedly erred because it failed to articulate a “reasoned evidentiary basis” in confirming the charges, among others. They added that the chamber “neither [set] out the material facts nor [provided] specific references to the evidence supporting its conclusions.”

However, the chamber explained that it referred only to “those items of evidence which it [considered] necessary to show the line of reasoning underpinning its conclusions.”

“For these reasons, the chamber hereby rejects the request,” said the pre-trial chamber in its Thursday decision.

Duterte has been detained at The Hague, Netherlands, since his arrest in March 2025. He is facing three counts of crimes against humanity due to alleged killings under his Davao Death Squad and his war on drugs.

Apart from the confirmation of charges, Duterte also suffered a defeat after the ICC Appeals Chamber denied his challenge on jurisdiction in April. The challenge on jurisdiction, Duterte’s biggest legal ammunition, questioned the court’s powers and mandate to handle his cases.

Recently, Duterte also replaced his legal counsels, Nicholas Kaufman and Dov Jacobs. He picked former ICC Bar Association president Peter Haynes as his new lead counsel, with Australian lawyer Kate Gibson as his new associate counsel. – Rappler.com