Geline Salac

Duterte’s defense challenges trial fitness, citing cognitive decline and procedural errors

Mr Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s initial appearance took place on Friday, 14 March 2025, at 14:00 hours (The Hague local time), before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "Court").

Article (news)

Initial appearance of Mr Rodrigo Roa Duterte

Bea Cuadra

ABS-CBN News

<p>Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal team is formally challenging a court decision that cleared the former president for trial, arguing that the proceedings are fundamentally unfair because the court ignored &quot;objective facts&quot; of his mental decline. </p><div><br/></div><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display:flex;max-width:550px;width:100%;margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameBorder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=2018776379933028772&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com%2F%23%2Fworkspace%2Fmonitoring%3Fitem%3Durn%3Anewsml%3Aod2-workbench-api.abs-cbn.com%3A2026-02-03T22%3A58%3A47.082240%3Ac00766fc-4130-4137-8ea8-2771f943defb%26action%3Dedit&amp;sessionId=d62acd4f0dc2df7375346461fa0475dd455533e6&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&amp;width=550px" style="position:static;visibility:visible;width:550px;height:568px;display:block;flex-grow:1" data-tweet-id="2018776379933028772"></iframe></div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8"></script><div><br/></div><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/7O18LRIobhE?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>The defense warns that proceeding with a confirmation of charges hearing while Duterte is unable to &quot;meaningfully exercise&quot; his rights could contaminate the entire legal process.</p><p>In an appeal filed at The Hague, lawyers for former President Duterte have accused the Pre-Trial Chamber of disregarding critical medical evidence and human rights in a rush to advance the case. </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/SHGAd3sk8cE?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>&quot;Instead, she advocated continuing with &#x27;the holding of the confirmation of charges hearing&#x27; in order to &#x27;ensure the expeditiousness of the proceedings,&#x27;&quot; as stated in the document.</p><p>The newly released legal filing argues that the court’s determination that Duterte is &quot;fully mentally aware and fit&quot; was based on &quot;nothing&quot; and lacked a proper neurological assessment at the time of his initial appearance.</p><p>This appeal marks a high-stakes battle over whether the former President is cognitively capable of defending himself against international charges, or if the court is ignoring a medical reality to ensure the case stays on track.</p><p>The defense paints a starkly different picture of the man once known for his iron-fisted rule, asserting that Duterte suffers from a cognitive impairment affecting his memory, executive function, and reasoning skills.</p><p>&quot;No consideration was given by the Pre-Trial Chamber to the fact that, given his age and vascular risk profile, Mr Duterte’s memory will continue to depreciate just as the need for recollection and mental acuity sharply increases. This failure, and the subsequent finding of fitness, has not only polluted the fairness of the present proceedings, but is also an injudicious use of resources should Mr. Duterte prove, as the Defence anticipates, unable to participate in his own trial,&quot; explained in the document.</p><p>The filing claims this decline is so pronounced that even basic legal cooperation has become impossible, noting that Duterte would &quot;promptly forget&quot; to request his own medical records whenever asked by his counsel. </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/yuQspBClj6I?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>&quot;Each time Counsel requested Mr Duterte to ask for these records, Mr Duterte would promptly forget to do so because of his cognitive condition, as the back-and-forth correspondence will show,&quot; said the document. </p><p>&quot;Mr. Duterte is unable to process information in a manner that will enable him to exercise, meaningfully, his rights before this Court,&quot; the defense stated, adding that the detention center’s own medical officer &quot;does not permit Mr Duterte to take responsibility for his own medication&quot;—an act they argue would be unnecessary &quot;had Mr Duterte a mind like a steel trap.&quot;</p><p>The appeal pulls no punches regarding the court’s handling of the medical evaluation process, detailing what the defense calls a &quot;recap of extraordinary injustice.&quot;</p><p>The filing claims the court attempted to appoint a &quot;pseudoscientist under active professional suspension&quot; and a &quot;rabid social media troll&quot; to the medical panel tasked with evaluating the former president. </p><p>Furthermore, the defense alleges the court ignored its own experts and an anonymous neuropsychologist who reportedly found the &quot;very same cognitive deficiencies&quot; observed by the defense&#x27;s independent doctors.</p><p>Seeking leave to appeal on four specific grounds, the defense argues the Pre-Trial Chamber erred by ignoring clinical evidence, denying an evidentiary hearing to question the court-appointed panel, and failing to explain how Duterte is fit for the complex &quot;confirmation of charges&quot; phase.</p><p>Crucially, they argue the court failed to consider &quot;procedural stamina&quot;—whether a man with recognized memory deficits can survive a trial involving thousands of pages of evidence and daily hearings. </p><p>The legal team also pushed back against the &quot;popular perception&quot; that the fitness plea is a &quot;ploy carefully crafted to shirk accountability,&quot; arguing instead that forcing a man who cannot &quot;retain information&quot; or &quot;effectively instruct Counsel&quot; into a trial is a violation of international law.</p><p>The defense concludes that &quot;there is little point in holding a confirmation hearing when there is a strong likelihood that the suspect, even if charges were to be confirmed, would be unfit to stand trial,&quot; insisting that an immediate intervention by the Appeals Chamber is the only way to prevent the proceedings from continuing.</p>

<p>Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal team is formally challenging a court decision that cleared the former president for trial, arguing that the proceedings are fundamentally unfair because the court ignored "objective facts" of his mental decline.</p>

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal team is formally challenging a court decision that cleared the former president for trial, arguing that the proceedings are fundamentally unfair because the court ignored "objective facts" of his mental decline.