The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), on July 15, 2025, via it’s Chief Information Officer Marco Valbuena, chided Senator Allan Cayetano for filing a resolution in the Philippine Senate calling for “house arrest” for former president Rodrigo Duterte instead of continuing detention in a jail in The Hague, The Netherlands, by the International Court of Justice (ICC) after being arrested for charges of crimes against humanity.

“Are you joking?”, exclaimed Valbuena, pointing out that “only those who recognize their mistakes and express remorse for their crimes, deserve to have some consideration...Even now, Duterte continues to show no compunction for having ordered the killings of thousands of people whom he called monsters, animals and not worthy of being treated as humans.”

The CPP acknowledged Cayetano for recognizing Duterte as an “evil person”. “Duterte is enjoying his rights as an evil person awaiting trial in The Hague, which is more than can be said for the victims of his fake drug war and for hundreds of activists, critics and hors de combat revolutionaries killed under his watch.”

The CPP’s organ Ang Bayan, on June 21, 2055, revealed that families of victims, human rights lawyers, and progressive organizations also strongly opposed former president Rodrigo Duterte’s defense team’s appeal for temporary release from ICC detention in The Hague, The Netherlands. They said that this move threatens justice for the thousands killed under the “war on drugs” and strengthens the culture of zero accountability for crimes against humanity.

Victims and families of victims emphasized the danger of Duterte’s camp intimidating witnesses and others calling for justice if he is given temporary release. The Duterte family remains politically powerful in the Philippines, and in fact, Duterte’s daughter Sara Duterte continues to trot around the globe railing against the ICC despite the impeachment case against her in the Philippine Congress.

Another trick of the Duterte lawyers is to seek to disqualify two judges from his ICC case, Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and María del Socorro Flores Liera,on the grounds of “perceived bias”. The lawyers said that judges had already ruled on the same jurisdictional issue in a previous decision authorizing the ICC’s investigation into Duterte’s alleged crimes, despite the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute in 2019.

The ICC’s plenary of judges unanimously rejected the request, pointing out that the judges acted within their legal duties under the Rome Statute, no actual or reasonable apprehension of bias was found, and that the defense’s arguments were legally untenable and could cause unnecessary delay.

Some observers noted that the move may have been part of a broader legal strategy to delay proceedings or cast doubt on the court’s neutrality.