Two judges from the International Criminal Court (or ICC) have said they should not be taken off the case against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The case is about serious crimes that happened while Duterte was president, and the judges say the reason to remove them is not fair and has no proof.
The judges are Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and María del Socorro Flores Liera. On May 22, they sent a 3-page letter to the court saying that they are doing their jobs properly and treating the case fairly.
They explained that there is no good reason to think they are being unfair, and that they are following the rules of the Rome Statute (this is the main set of rules used by the ICC). They asked the other judges in the ICC to reject the request to disqualify them from the case.
Earlier, Duterte’s team had asked the court to remove the two judges because they already spoke about the question of whether the ICC has the right to investigate what happened in the Philippines. But the judges explained that they were just doing their duty back then, and that it was only about whether the ICC could start an investigation, not whether Duterte was guilty.
They also said the earlier decision did not use the same arguments that Duterte’s team is now bringing up. That means the judges believe they can still decide on the case fairly, even though they worked on earlier parts of it.
The judges added, “We are professionals. We only look at the evidence and facts in each case, and we make our decisions based on that.”
Right now, Rodrigo Duterte is being held by the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands. The court is planning to decide whether to move forward with the charges on September 23, 2025.
