Former president Rodrigo Duterte’s initial appearance before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court,  March 14, 2025. ICC/File

MANILA — Investigation is ongoing against other personalities tagged in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s charge of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, its spokesperson said.

“The ICC prosecutor and his office are continuing to investigate and if they have sufficient evidence, they will present it to the judges, and the judges will decide whether to issue…arrest warrants,” the court’s spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said. 

“Investigations are ongoing and confidentiality is a key element to ensure the success of the investigation so we cannot give more details on that,” he told TeleRadyo Serbisyo on Tuesday.  

While Abdallah did not mention anyone, Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa, a former police chief and drug war enforcer, earlier said he expected to be arrested by the ICC next.

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Dela Rosa said he would seek all legal remedies to avoid arrest.  

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The ICC chief prosecutor's application for his arrest said Duterte's alleged crimes were "part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population" in the Philippines.

"Potentially tens of thousands of killings were perpetrated," the prosecutor alleged of the campaign that targeted mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.

The ex-president faces a 6-month wait inside the United Nations' Scheveningen prison before his next scheduled court appearance on September 23.

The court session will confirm the charges against him and allow him to contest the allegations.

Could Duterte face more charges at ICC?

“We are moving to another phase, which is the phase of confirmation of charges. For that, the judges need to verify the accusations against a higher threshold because they need to check if there are substantial grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is responsible for such illegal conducts,” Abdallah said.

“That would be done by listening to the prosecutor…but also to the defense counter-argumentation,” he added. “There is also a possibility for the victims to present through a legal representative…their observations, their personal stories.”

Chief ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has disclosed 181 unspecified items of evidence to the defense, led by British-Israeli lawyer Nicholas Kaufman.

Duterte said "everything I did, I did for my country," his daughter Vice President Sara Duterte told reporters last Friday.

She also relayed that her father wanted proceedings against him to move as quickly as possible, with the 80-year-old fearful of dying in custody.

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