Skip to content

Tag: Duterte ICC

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.

Continue readingIn English, please

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.

Continue readingDuterte’s lies catch up with him at ICC

Duterte’s attempt to use China card aborted by Chinese ships’ water-cannon act

Published by Ellen on August 13, 2023
Pres. Ferdinand Marcos receives former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte in Malacañang Aug. 2.

The attempt by former president Rodrigo Duterte to use the China card to gain a prominent role in the Marcos administration and protect himself from the International Criminal Court got aborted just when his cohorts in the Senate were about to launch it.

The embarrassing thing about the flop is that it was his benefactor, China, that ruined it. That was the water cannoning by Chinese ships of the Philippine boats bringing supplies to the Marines on Ayungin Shoal.

Continue readingDuterte’s attempt to use China card aborted by Chinese ships’ water-cannon act