By Diego Morra
Wednesday, April 22, 2026, would go down in history as the day when the Duterte political dynasty suffered twin catastrophes, with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague rejecting all four arguments raised in questioning the jurisdiction of the court in prosecuting detained former president Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity.
The ICC Appeals Chamber affirmed the jurisdiction of the court over the crimes against humanity case against the Duterte patriarch, thus killing any succeeding legal questions the defense may raise to delay the prosecution. The five-member Appeals Chamber rejected the defense bid to toss the court’s jurisdiction over the case and prevent any investigation into the drug war. The elder Duterte is under the gun for three counts of murder as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in the killings carried out by anti-narcotics agents and Davao City hitmen. The cases against him cover the killings in Davao City between 2013 and 2016 and as president until March 2019, when the Philippines withdrew from the ICC as ordered by Duterte himself.
Human rights lawyer Maria Sol Taule said the ICC’s junking Duterte’s appeal is a “major win for the victims.” She added: “It affirms that the case against Duterte and his cohorts will proceed, bringing the victims’ long struggle for justice closer to accountability.” The Makabayan bloc members —ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, Gabriela party-list Rep. Sarah Elago and Kabataan party-list Rep. Renee Co — said the “double whammy” means that the former president will be held accountable for the mass murder. “Dutertes suffered double whammy today. Digong’s appeal on jurisdiction was rejected by the ICC. Sara’s questionable bank transactions in the billions have been exposed,” Makabayan said. “Accountability is coming for them. The people should press on with this demand.”
The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) also confirmed the various joint bank accounts of the elder Duterte and his daughter Sara, now the vice -president, who has been impeached and is now being quizzed about those accounts, with as much P6.77-billion being withdrawn for the benefit of the Dutertes. AMLC Executive Director Ronnel Buenaventura said they have verified the covered and suspicious transactions made by Vice President Duterte and her relatives. He said they saw 630 covered transactions and 33 suspicious transactions, totaling P6.77 billion, that were made by the Vice President and her family.
A total of P4.4 billion flowed into the accounts, P1.5 billion was transferred out, and P791 million could not be classified either as an inflow or outflow, the AMLC report presented before the House committee on justice showed. Moreover, the AMLC officer confirmed that all of the 18 financial transactions randomly picked by Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima from the documents provided by former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV matched their records. The same figures were cited by former Assistant Ombudsman Arthur Carandang as being “genuine.” His statement led to his ouster from his post upon the orders of Rodrigo Duterte.
“So five out of five transactions randomly selected by Honorable de Lima from the annex are confirmed by the AMLC, at least in the sense that similar transactions appeared in their report. So, in total, how many transactions have been confirmed?” House justice committee chairperson and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro asked Buenaventura. “Do you confirm that (it is) a total of 18 transactions?” He replied: “We informed the committee earlier that there are 18 transactions mentioned, that what we mentioned are existing in our report.”
Lawyer Karen Batu of the Office of the Ombudsman’s Central Records Division examined Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio’s Statements of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) from 2007 to 2024 and said all the figures in the documents were true. Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said that the vice president’s net worth from 2007 to 2024 rose by 1,000%, or from P7.2 million to P88.51 million. Committee Other justice committee also wondered why Sara did not declare in her SALN any cash on hand (COH) and cash in bank (CIB) since 2019 while her wealth grew by leaps and bounds.
Duterte’s SALNs showed she held P2 million in petty cash and bank deposits from 2007 to 2008, rising to P2.8 million the following year. In 2010, her cash holdings reached P3.66 million and rose to P3.93 million in 2011 before climbing to P4.32 million in 2012. In 2016, Duterte had P3.75 million in cash and bank deposits and zoomed to P6.36 million the following year. In 2017, Sara possessed P3.79 million COH and deposits. In her succeeding SALNs, her liquid funds evaporated. “The sudden and continuous absence of declarations of liquid assets… casts doubt on the accuracy and completeness of Vice President Sara’s subsequent SALNs,” de Lima argued as she cast doubts on the accuracy of her financial records. #
