01/06/2026
THEY ARRESTED HIM FIRST. THEY ARE STILL INVESTIGATING NOW.
This is what they don’t want you to notice.
The biggest revelation from the recently concluded ICC status conference on the case of former President Duterte is this, the prosecution is still NOT DONE with their INVESTIGATION.
This is not speculation. This is not propaganda. The prosecution itself admitted in open court that it still needs more time to complete its evidence, finalize its list of witnesses, and even decide which additional incidents to include in the case.
That is why the Chamber had to set a hard deadline of August 31, 2026.
Let that sink in.
They took an 81-year-old former head of state of the REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES all the way to The Hague. They pulled him out of his own country. They locked him up. They confirmed the charges. They are already setting a trial date for November 30, 2026, yet their own prosecution is still building its case?
Simply put. They arrested him first. They are still investigating now.
And before anyone says “that’s just normal ICC procedure”, think again. The ICC’s own courts have ruled in previous cases that the prosecution should have largely completed its investigation before confirmation of charges, not after.
In the Kenyatta case, the ICC Trial Chamber itself warned that continuing to collect large volumes of evidence after confirmation “is not an unlimited prerogative”, and that the prosecution should not seek to have charges confirmed before conducting a full and thorough investigation.
So, even by the ICC’s own rules and past rulings, this is not how it is supposed to work.
And now, after all of that, we find out that the prosecution that benefited from that arrest is not even done investigating.
Any fair court system in the world will tell you, you don’t arrest someone and then figure out the evidence later. The accused has the right to face a prosecution that is ready and prepared.
The fact that Trial Chamber III judges themselves had to impose a deadline to force the prosecution to get organized tells you everything about the state of this case.
This is the International Criminal Court that they call the gold standard of international justice. This is the government that calls itself the servant of the Filipino people.
