Ex-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte did not tell the International Criminal Court (ICC) to put US and Israeli leaders on trial, contrary to claims shared in Chinese social media posts after his arrest on a crimes against humanity charge. The China-friendly former president only spoke briefly during an initial ICC hearing on March 14 to confirm his name and date of birth, and the next stage of proceedings is scheduled for September 23.
“The Hague courtroom is abuzz,” reads part of a Facebook post written in a mix of traditional and simplified Chinese characters shared on March 23, 2025.
“On March 19, former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte appeared in court in a wheelchair, and when the ICC judge finished reading the charge of ‘crimes against humanity’, the 79-year-old tough guy suddenly threw out data to refute the allegations.”
The post says Duterte “compared the slaughter of civilians in Afghanistan by the US military and the bombing of tens of thousands of Gaza’s children by Israel” with images of “the bodies of children brutalised by drug traffickers” before suggesting the ICC put former US president Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on trial.
The post, which was shared more than 2,700 times, also included an AFP photo showing Duterte delivering a speech in October 2016.
The post circulated after Duterte’s arrest and transfer to The Hague on March 11 to face a crimes against humanity charge stemming from his deadly war on drugs that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands (archived link).
Duterte’s tenure as president was also marked by a swing away from the United States in favour of China; setting aside rivalry with Beijing over the resource-rich South China Sea and opting to court Chinese business instead (archived link).
After his arrest, China warned the ICC against “politicization” and “double standards”, saying it was “closely monitoring” Duterte’s case.
Similar claims about his purported refutation of the ICC allegations at a March 19 hearing were shared elsewhere on Facebook, X, Threads, and Weibo. Former Taiwanese lawmaker Alex Tsai, now a political commentator, also posted a similar claim that has since been shared over 1,500 times.
“It’s really too good to be true, charging the United States, Europe, and Israel with the mass murder of civilians in other countries in US-European-controlled courts,” read a comment on one of the posts.
Another said: “The Hague tribunal is a puppet judiciary.”
Fabricated court record
But Duterte has not appeared before ICC judges since an initial hearing on March 14 (archived link).
The 79-year-old former president did not attend in person, instead following along by video link during the short hearing to inform him of the crimes he is alleged to have committed, as well as his rights as a defendant.
Presiding Judge Iulia Motoc allowed him to follow proceedings in absentia due to his long flight to The Hague, and he spoke only briefly to confirm his name and date of birth.
Video of the hearing released by the ICC on YouTube shows Duterte neither mentioned US or Israeli politicians nor presented photos to rebut the allegations against him (archived link).
Read the full story on AFP Fact Check.