Dennis Gaviola

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17437814785391743781527077.jpeg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte appearing for the first time before the ICC judges on 14 March 2025. ICC-CPI handout photo"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte appearing for the first time before the ICC judges on 14 March 2025. <em>ICC-CPI handout photo</em></span></span></span></div><p>Philippine ex-president Rodrigo Duterte, facing International Criminal Court charges over his deadly narcotics crackdown, said &quot;everything I did, I did for my country,&quot; his daughter told reporters Friday.</p><p>Sara Duterte, who is also her country&#x27;s vice president, was briefing journalists at the detention center in The Hague after a long conversation with her father interned inside.</p><p>She also relayed that her father wants proceedings against him to move as quickly as possible, with the 80-year-old fearful of dying in custody.</p><p>&quot;Everything I did, I did for my country. (I don&#x27;t know) whether that statement is acceptable or not, but I want it out to the world,&quot; said Sara, relaying her father&#x27;s words.</p><p>The vice president would not be drawn as to whether this amounted to an admission of responsibility for the crimes her father is facing at the ICC.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/26/prosecutors-send-first-set-of-evidence-to-duterte-defense-team-0921">Prosecutors send first set of evidence to Duterte defense</a></div><p>It was the first reported comments from Rodrigo Duterte since he appeared tired and dazed at an initial appearance at the ICC, which he attended by videolink and barely spoke.</p><p>In a video posted when Duterte arrived in the Netherlands last month to face the charges, he had said &quot;I will be responsible for all of this.&quot;</p><p>Duterte stands accused of the crime against humanity of murder over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups said killed thousands.</p><p>In the prosecutor&#x27;s application for his arrest, he said Duterte&#x27;s alleged crimes were &quot;part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in the Philippines&quot;.</p><p>&quot;Potentially tens of thousands of killings were perpetrated,&quot; the prosecutor alleged of the campaign that targeted mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/4/4/ejk-victims-kin-seek-probe-into-coordinated-harassment-after-duterte-arrest-1517">&#x27;We will not be silenced&#x27;: EJK victims&#x27; kin seek probe into &#x27;intensified&#x27; online attacks</a></div><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/23/ex-president-duterte-confident-he-has-no-case-to-answer-at-icc-says-vp-sara-2347">Ex-president Duterte confident he has &#x27;no case&#x27; to answer at ICC, says VP Sara</a></div><p>In an interview with AFP earlier Friday, a lawyer for victims, Gilbert Andres, said loved-ones of those affected were seeking &quot;truth and justice&quot; from a potential trial.</p><p>The next hearing is scheduled for September 23, where the charges against him will be laid out, but Sara Duterte said her father was eager to get proceedings underway.</p><p>&quot;He wants to go back to the Philippines. He said, &#x27;I am an old man. I can die anytime. But I want to die in my country&#x27;,&quot; said Sara Duterte.</p><p>The former president was arrested on March 11  on his arrival from Hong Kong at the request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as part of its probe into his &quot;war on drugs&quot; that defined his presidency.</p><p>The ICC warrant for Duterte&#x27;s arrest said that as president, the 80-year-old Duterte allegedly created, funded, and armed death squads that carried out murders of purported drug users and dealers.</p><p>He was brought to The Hague in the Netherlands on the same day he was arrested.</p><p>Duterte on March 14 appeared via video link before ICC judges. He is set to attend a September 25 hearing to confirm the charges against him. </p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qXBleBgGKkA??si=T8ugffvJKF_4-Cpa&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>"Everything I did, I did for my country. (I don't know) whether that statement is acceptable or not, but I want it out to the world," said Sara, relaying her father's words.</p>

"Everything I did, I did for my country. (I don't know) whether that statement is acceptable or not, but I want it out to the world," said Sara, relaying her father's words.

'Everything I did was for my country', Duterte says via daughter

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'Everything I did was for my country', Duterte says via daughter

Agence France-Presse

Published April 04, 2025 11:46 PM PHT

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Updated April 05, 2025 09:11 AM PHT

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Rodrigo Duterte

ABSnews

ICC

war on drugs

Sara Duterte

EJK

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