Vice President Sara Duterte called for the immediate release of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, during an address to supporters in The Hague, Netherlands, asserting that his ongoing detention by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is unjust and politically driven.
Speaking on Wednesday, the Vice President argued that the former president does not satisfy the criteria for continued detention outlined in the Rome Statute. She highlighted his frail health and advanced age to dispute claims by the tribunal that he poses a flight risk.
“He should be released and he should be released immediately…. This is not about justice. This is about politics in the Philippines,” the Vice President said on Wednesday at The Hague.
“They are holding an 81-year-old who cannot make his own bed, who cannot even clean his own room, who has bedsores and who has so many aches and pains because of old age,” she noted.
“You saw [former] President Duterte being pushed, pulled outside of the room, pushed into a plane. Is that a person who is a flight risk? He cannot even walk three steps and fall to the ground.”
She further questioned the court’s jurisdiction over the matter, criticizing the manner in which her father was brought into custody and alleging unfair treatment under the international legal framework.
“If this is about justice, then why does it allow injustice to happen to people who are respondents of communications — of complaints inside ICC?” she asked.
“There is no justice for the Philippines. There is no justice for Filipinos, and there is no justice for former President Rodrigo Duterte,” she added.
The former president faces charges of crimes against humanity linked to alleged killings during his tenures as chief executive and mayor of Davao City.
He has remained in custody in The Hague following his March 2025 detention after traveling to Hong Kong for a political gathering.