By Rhoda Grace B Saron
FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal defense team formally petitioned the International Criminal Court’s Trial Chamber III to compel the Prosecution to restructure its massive case record, as the current disclosures are deeply prejudicial to their trial preparations.
According to the defense filing, the evidentiary burden has ballooned exponentially from 5,275 items in the confirmation stage to a staggering 62,130 items.
Compounding the issue, more than 37,000 of those items were dumped on or after Aug. 31, leaving defense lawyers with a narrow window to comb through the material before their trial brief is due on Oct. 30, ahead of the scheduled trial kickoff on Nov. 30.
The defense argued that the crisis is not merely a matter of sheer volume, but of structural breakdown.
Legal counsels pointed to pervasive issues including incorrectly labeled documents, pages ripped from original files, extensive duplicates, illegible materials, and audio or video files lacking transcripts.
These systemic flaws, the defense warned, severely cripple their ability to locate and assess vital evidence—including potentially exculpatory material critical to the former president’s case.
To salvage due process, the defense has asked the chamber to order a clean, properly organized replacement case record capped at a maximum of 10,000 items.
This streamlined file would house all reviewed relevant documents and exculpatory evidence, with the defense requesting a strict compliance deadline of October 7, 2026.
