THE International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday said it expects former president Rodrigo Duterte to attend his trial for crimes against humanity daily when it opens on Nov. 30.
Presiding Judge Joanna Korner said the chamber had allowed Duterte to skip Monday’s status conference in his case.
“Once the actual trial starts, we will expect, as we said, attendance on a daily basis,” Korner told the parties during the open session.
The chamber also agreed to allow Duterte’s defense team to outline its position at the start of the trial, even if it does not deliver a formal opening statement.
Korner said Duterte’s counsel, Peter Haynes, could explain the defense’s position to the public before the prosecution and the Common Legal Representatives of Victims deliver their opening statements.
The arrangement would not prevent the defense from making an opening statement at the beginning of its case, although the chamber may shorten the time allotted for it.
Haynes said he was inclined to make an opening statement at the start of the trial, citing Duterte’s status and the nature of the case.
He said the defense would finalize its position within the next few days.
The prosecution said it was working to reduce its opening statement from six hours to about three hours.
The victims’ representatives also plan to deliver an opening statement after the prosecution. Their counsel, Paolina Massidda, said the team was working on shortening its presentation.
During the same hearing, the chamber rejected a request by the victims’ representatives to use Tagalog for limited portions of their opening statement.
Massidda told the judges that the team wanted to quote portions of victims’ accounts in Tagalog to help Filipino victims following the proceedings connect with the experiences being presented to the court.
She said the use of Tagalog would be limited to about 15 to 20 minutes of the overall presentation, with individual passages lasting only a minute or two.
Korner said the Rome Statute identifies English and French as the ICC’s working languages and that exceptional grounds would be needed to permit the use of another language.
She noted that not all victims speak Tagalog, with some using other Philippine dialects.
The judge said the court would ensure interpretation of the proceedings and consider whether Tagalog translations or transcripts could be made available on the ICC website.
The chamber affirmed that the opening statements must be delivered in English, citing the court’s language requirements and concerns that allowing exceptions could lead to additional requests, greater complexity and higher costs.
Duterte faces three counts of crimes against humanity involving murder and attempted murder in connection with killings allegedly committed during his term as Davao City mayor and president.
The charges cover alleged killings in Davao City between 2013 and June 2016, killings of so-called high-value targets nationwide from July 2016 to July 2017, and killings during barangay “clearing” operations from July 2016 to September 2018.
Duterte was turned over to the ICC in March 2025 and is being held at the court’s detention center in The Hague, the Netherlands.
He has denied the allegations.
