Category: Duterte

In English, please

Published by Ellen on February 17, 2026

Following the case of former president Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court means wading through all submissions and statements that can intimidate non-lawyers.

Covering the Duterte case also requires seeking information and insights from all sides, online and offline.

One steady source of updates on Duterte is the Meta (formerly Facebook) vlog Alvin and Tourism. It is run by Alvin Dave Sarzate, a Filipino based in The Netherlands and a Duterte loyalist. His Facebook page has 1.7 million followers. Several times a week, he posts updates through interviews with family members who visit the former president at the Scheveningen penitentiary.

I found the comments on Alvin’s post about the Feb. 13 statement of Duterte’s British-Israeli lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, particularly revealing. The statement dealt with the release of the names of the former president’s alleged co-perpetrators in the crimes against humanity case linked to Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

Duterte’s lies catch up with him at ICC

Published by Ellen on February 9, 2026

Less than two weeks before the scheduled hearings for the confirmation of charges against former president Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court, his lawyer is still trying to stop them from going forward.

Despite the Jan. 23 ruling of the Pre-Trial Chamber that the soon-to-be 81-year-old Duterte is fit to stand trial, his counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, insists that his client is “enfeebled.”

In an appeal filed Feb. 5 reiterating the indefinite adjournment of the hearings, Kaufman argued that the chamber committed substantial errors of fact and law when it declined to consider the medical report submitted by experts hired by Duterte. “The Medical Report detailed Mr Duterte’s lack of executive functioning, sustained planning capacity, and rapid decision-making—to say nothing of his enfeebled physical state—that would make it impossible for him to evade custody,” Kaufman said.

The looming arrest of Duterte and the 2025 elections

Published by Ellen on June 3, 2024

The main character and three of the supporting cast in the ICC trial of Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

The looming issuance of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for former president Rodrigo Duterte and his accomplices in his deadly war on drugs is expected to impact tremendously in the 2025 midterm and the 2028 presidential elections.
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who was the first to bring Duterte’s crimes to the ICC way back in 2017, said the warrants of arrest could be served later this month or early July.

He said, according to his sources privy to the workings of the ICC, the serving of the arrest warrants will be done by batch. The former president will be the first one to be served.

The second batch would most likely include Vice President Sara Duterte and Sens. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go.

The third batch would likely be the police officials who led in the implementation of Duterte’s war on drugs that claimed the lives of some 30,000. (Government figures put those who were killed during police operations at 6,000.)

VP Sara, 2 senators named in ICC probe documents

Published by Ellen on July 23, 2023

Former president Rodrigo Duterte with daughter Vice President Sara and Sen. Bong Go in a 2019 photo when they attended the enthronement of Japanese Emperor Naruhito. Malacañang photo

Aside from former president Rodrigo Duterte, Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio and two incumbent senators were named in documents submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigating the killings related to the drug war during the previous administration and when Duterte was mayor of Davao City, a copy of the documents obtained by VERA Files shows.

The vice president’s name was mentioned as knowing and approving the killings when she was city mayor, a post that her father held for more than 20 years. Sara was mayor from 2010 to 2013, and from 2016 to 2022.

A person knowledgeable of the ICC probe said she could be issued a “summons” by the ICC. If she would not comply with the summons, she would be issued a warrant of arrest.

This is the first time the name of Sara was mentioned in the documents relevant to the ICC investigation.

Fr. Flavie’s Program Paghilum

Published by Ellen on June 5, 2023

Dutch ambassador gives ashes to son of the victim. Photo by Vincent Go.

“I think he is into drugs.”

Fr. Flavie Villanueva was referring to Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, who suggested on May 23 that former president Rodrigo Duterte be named as anti-drug czar. Duterte’s presidency was notorious for the brutal drug war that killed more than 20,000 (official police figure is more than 6,000) persons.

Thankfully, Duterte shot down immediately his former aide-turned-senator’s idea, saying that it is President Marcos Jr.’s call now and he should be given “the greatest elbow room, leeway to do his job.”

Fr. Flavie does not buy the line that the Duterte administration’s murderous war against illegal drugs is much more effective than the current government’s strategy, given the recent expose of police involvement in illegal drug trafficking. “Ang mga nahuhuli nila noon ay mga nasa laylayan. Ang mga nahuhuli nila ngayon ay malalaking isda.”

(The ones they caught before were those in the low fringes of society. The ones caught now are the big fishes.)

‘Ridiculous,’ SC says on drug war records as ‘national security’

Published by Ellen on June 6, 2021

Several times, President Rodrigo Duterte has proudly taken responsibility for the killings in his bloody campaign against illegal drugs. It goes without saying, therefore, that the prosecution of the drug-related killings would have to reach his level.

If he thinks that citing “national security” will save him and the top officials who implemented his war on drugs, including his first police chief, now Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, from being accountable for all those killings, he is wrong.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) already used that line in the 2018 case of Aileen Almora, et al. Vs. Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, et al./Sr. Ma. Juanita R. Daño, et al. Vs. The Philippine National Police, et al. and the Supreme Court vehemently rejected it.
The Supreme Court’s words: “It is simply ridiculous to claim that these information and documents on police operations against drug pushers and users involve national security matter.”

Why does DOJ need PNP consent to probe cops in drug war?

Published by Ellen on May 30, 2021

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra is very grateful and called it a “very significant milestone” because it “did not happen in previous years.”

This is no different from President Duterte thanking China for allowing Filipino fishermen to fish in the area of Scarborough Shoal, a Philippine territory. But that’s another topic that requires a separate discussion.

This so-called “very significant milestone” came after a meeting with newly installed PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar who said this is being done to dispel allegations that they are hiding facts on the killings from the public to protect the law enforcers involved in carrying out Duterte’s brutal banner program that has elicited international concern and condemnation.

No one is biting the bait, especially the families of the victims and their lawyers.

Liar

Published by Ellen on May 16, 2021

No, the jet ski boast was not a joke. It was a lie.

Joke is defined by Merriam-Webster as something said or done to provoke laughter while a lie is an untrue statement made with the intention to deceive.

It was a lie, planned with his campaign staff, which he used in almost all of his 2016 campaign rallies, complete with flag-kissing. There was the INTENTION to deceive.

Medical bulletin, not staged photos, please!

Published by Ellen on April 11, 2021

Instead of having Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go post staged photos to prove that President Rodrigo Duterte is alive, why doesn’t Malacañang release a medical bulletin on the chief executive’s health?

That should end once and for all talks about his health, which has become so unhealthy not only for him but also for the public.

The president was last seen live on TV on March 29. He missed his April 5 televised briefing.

Truth will find its way out

Published by Ellen on April 4, 2021

Screen grab from video showing President Duterte attempting to grope the woman bringing him his birthday cake.

Presidential-aide-turned-senator Christopher “Bong” Go recently tried to mislead the public with a cropped photo of President Rodrigo Duterte having a “simple” birthday celebration.

Unfortunately for him and fortunately for the public, the truth came out. It’s a stinging reminder of the superiority of truth over lies.