Duterte could face up to 30 years or life imprisonment if convicted

CRY FOR JUSTICE. Orphaned families and supporters of victims of so-called extrajudicial killings gather along Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City on Tuesday (March 11, 2025). They want ex-president Rodrigo Duterte jailed for what the International Criminal Court calls crimes against humanity. (PNA photo by Joan Bondoc)

By Darryl John Esguerra, Philippine News Agency

MANILA – Former President Rodrigo Duterte could face a prison sentence of up to 30 years or even life imprisonment if convicted of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with his war on drugs, Malacañang said Wednesday.

“But it depends upon the defenses that can be availed of by the former president,” Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said in a press briefing.

Based on the ICC’s website, the tribunal does not impose the death penalty, but its judges can sentence a person to up to 30 years of imprisonment, and under exceptional circumstances, a life sentence.

Verdicts are subject to appeal and judges can also order reparations for the victims, the ICC said.

Duterte’s arrest by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and local police stemmed from the ICC’s ongoing investigation into allegations that Duterte’s anti-drug campaign led to thousands of extrajudicial killings when he was Davao City mayor and president of the country.

The former president was flown out of the country late Tuesday night.

Castro, a lawyer by profession, said Duterte would have to face a local court in the Netherlands to determine if his arrest was proper before being brought to the ICC to face the charges against him.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., in a press conference moments after Duterte’s plane departed for The Hague, stressed that the government was acting on the request of the Interpol, not the ICC from which the Philippines has pulled out in 2019.

“The arrest that we did today was in compliance with our commitments to Interpol.

It just so happened that that came from ICC. But it’s not because it came from ICC, it’s because it came from Interpol,” Marcos said.