The International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber junked the appeal of former President Rodrigo Duterte’ lawyers to inhibit two judges from ruling on jurisdiction of the tribunal over his crimes against humanity case.

In a four-page decision, signed by Presiding Judge Iulia Antonella Motoc, states that a judge’s excusal can only be sought by the concerned judge before the presidency, as opposed to disqualification which the parties may request.

“The possibility for that person to invite or request judges to seek excusal before the Presidency is thus not contemplated in the statutory texts,” the decision read.

“As stated by the Presidency, ‘no preemptive request may be made by the parties that a judge request his or her excusal’ and such course of action ‘lacks procedural propriety’,” it added.

The defense team filed the appeal on May 1. The prosecution team filed its opposition on May 5.

Duterte’s camp asked for the partial excusal of Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou and Judge María del Socorro Flores Liera on the issue of jurisdiction due to “the possibility of perceived bias.”

They said that this may arise out of the judges’ prior ruling on substantially the same issue in the situation in the Philippines.

Motoc, Alapini-Gansou, and Flores Liera signed the arrest warrant against Duterte.

The camp of the former president also filed on May 1 a “Defence Challenge with Respect to Jurisdiction” and asked for his immediate release.

According to Duterte’s lawyers, the preconditions for the exercise of jurisdiction in the Situation of the Philippines were not met at the time the Pre-Trial Chamber authorized the opening of an investigation on September 15 2021.

This, as his camp maintained that, “The Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute became effective on 17 March 2019. When the former Prosecutor filed her request, and the Pre-trial Chamber issued its decision, more than two years later.”

Duterte is currently under the custody of the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands.

The confirmation of charges will take place on September 23, 2025.

Meanwhile, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan submitted 139 items of evidence that are organized in four disclosure packages to the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber 1 on April 30.

Based on a document dated May 5, the packages are labeled contextual elements, modes of liability, murder during Duterte’s term as mayor, and murder under barangay clearance operations during his term as president.

Khan previously said that the prosecution is preparing two witnesses, 16 hours of audio video files, and nearly 9,000 pages of documents for the confirmation of charges.