Palace to Duterte lawyer Kaufman: 'Don't live in the past'

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has reiterated its position that the arrest and transfer of former President Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague last year was based on Philippine law and its Interpol commitments, and not at the behest of the International Criminal Court.

This, after defense lawyer Nicholas Kaufman argued once again that the Marcos administration, for political reasons, walked back its 2023 stance that it would not cooperate with the ICC as it lost its jurisdiction in the country. 

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro, at a briefing Thursday, April 23, told reporters: "Pakisabi kay Atty. Kaufman, huwag mabuhay sa nakaraan (Tell Atty. Kaufman, do not live in the past." 

Castro repeated what the Palace has said since Duterte's arrest in March 2025: the transfer was grounded in domestic law and the country's commitments to Interpol.

"Ang pagpapadala po kay dating Pangulong Duterte ay hindi naman po para tugunan ang utos ng ICC," she said.

These remarks came during a week of back-to-back rulings that have effectively sealed Duterte's path to a full trial at The Hague. 

On Wednesday, April 22, the ICC Appeals Chamber rejected, by majority, Duterte's challenge to the court's jurisdiction — his last legal avenue to have the case thrown out entirely.

The five-member panel dismissed all four grounds of appeal, ruling that the ICC retains authority over alleged crimes committed while the Philippines was still a party to the Rome Statute, from November 2011 to March 2019.

Then on Thursday, April 23 — after Castro's briefing — a separate body, Pre-Trial Chamber I, unanimously confirmed all three counts of crimes against humanity against Duterte and committed him to trial.  

With both rulings going against him, Duterte is no longer a detained suspect contesting the court's right to try him. He is now formally an "accused," headed for what will be the ICC's first full trial of an Asian head of state.