One drug-related killing incident removed from Duterte’s ICC case ahead of November trial
Families of victims of the war on drugs under former President Rodrigo Duterte, along with human rights advocates, gather at the National Council of Churches in the Philippines in Quezon City on September 16, 2026, to watch the livestream of the International Criminal Court’s third status conference. In a rare appearance, Duterte attended the proceedings, which the families of victims welcomed as a sign that he is fit to stand trial. Jire Carreon, ABS-CBN News/FileMANILA — The Office of the Prosecutor has complied with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) earlier directive to remove one drug-related killing incident in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity case that is set to start by the end of November.
As of October 20, the prosecution has filed an updated version of its Trial Brief, where Incident 57 has been deleted based on the “Chamber’s order to remove” the said clause.
“Pursuant to the Chamber’s order, the Prosecution has removed all references to Incident 57 in the Trial Brief and replaced them with “[DELETED]” in order to retain cross-references,” the document read.
“References to Incident 57 have also been removed from Annexes C.1 and C.2 of the Trial Brief,” it read.
“No amendments have been made to the Prosecution’s List of Witnesses or its List of Evidence because: (i) [REDACTED]; and (ii) [REDACTED], combined with other evidence relating to Incident 57, is relevant to [REDACTED], the contextual elements of crimes against humanity, and Mr Duterte’s individual criminal responsibility,” it read.
Due to the ICC’s strict protection policy for witnesses and victims, parties to the case usually refer to each offense as an incident, and redacts the names of those involved in publicly released documents.
Earlier this month, the ICC Trial Chamber III said that Incident 57 should not be included in the list of incidents as it took place outside the temporal scope of Count 2.
Count 2 refers to the second count of crimes against humanity filed against Duterte for the alleged murder of high-value targets between July 2016 and July 2017.
Three counts of crimes against humanity was filed against the Philippines’ 16th President.
The first count covers his alleged masterminding of drug-related killings while he was still Mayor of Davao City, while the third count covers extrajudicial killings committed during barangay clearance operations across the Philippines between July 2016 and September 2018.
The removal of the said incident comes about a month before the chamber formally begins the trial of Duterte, the first Asian head of state to be transferred to the ICC.
The Chamber earlier allowed 7 contested incidents to be retained in the charges as they fell within the scope of the case.