FACT CHECK: No ICC ruling allowing Duterte to return to PH wearing location tracker

Claim: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled that detained former president Rodrigo Duterte will be allowed to return to the Philippines on the condition that he wears a location tracker.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: Several posts bearing the false claim have been circulating on Facebook, with the most popular one garnering 8,800 reactions, 1,200 comments, and 423 shares. The page spreading the claim, “SNN,” presents itself as a news site and has 162,000 followers.

The false posts use the same graphic, which shows Duterte with long, graying hair in front of a court. 

“Rodrigo Duterte, pinayagan na ng ICC makabalik sa Pilipinas at lalagyan ito ng tracker kung saan man sya pupunta,” text on the graphic says.  

(The ICC has allowed Rodrigo Duterte to return to the Philippines while equipped with a tracker wherever he goes.)

The caption used is also the same across the posts, which claims that the update was issued by the ICC. One of the posts includes a link that purportedly contains more details about the supposed decision.

Comments on these posts show that users believed the claim to be true, with one comment stating, “Totoo? Bahala may tracking importante makauwi.”

(Really? Never mind if there’s a tracker, the important thing is that he is brought home.)

The facts: There is no ICC ruling allowing Duterte to return to the Philippines as long as he wears a location tracker. The court’s official website does not list any such update for Duterte’s case.

The former president has previously made an unsuccessful bid for an interim release. He remains detained at the ICC prison in The Hague, awaiting his confirmation of charges hearing scheduled for February 23 to 27. The false claim began circulating a few weeks before the hearings.

On January 26, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I found the former president fit to take part in the pre-trial proceedings. Duterte’s legal team had earlier claimed that he was unfit for trial because he is cognitively impaired.

“Having regard to the relevant legal principles, the medical assessment of a panel of three independent medical experts and all of the relevant circumstances of the case, the Chamber was satisfied that Mr Duterte is able effectively to exercise his procedural rights and is therefore fit to take part in the pre-trial proceedings, which are thereby resumed,” the court said in its January 2026 decision.

Health condition: Ahead of the pre-trial proceedings, Duterte requested to waive his right to attend his confirmation of charges hearing, citing his poor health and refusal to recognize the chamber’s jurisdiction.

“I do not wish to attend legal proceedings that I will forget within minutes. I am old, tired, and frail. I wish for this Court to respect my peace inside the cell it has placed me. I have accepted the fact that I could die in prison,” Duterte stated in a letter typed for him and which his lawyer submitted to the ICC. (READ MORE: ‘I am old, tired, and frail’: Duterte asks ICC to skip pre-trial) 

False claims about release, ill health: All kinds of false claims about Duterte have been spreading in the lead-up to Duterte’s confirmation of charges hearing. Most common among these are posts that say Duterte is set to be released or is in poor health. 

Rappler has previously debunked these claims:

• FACT CHECK: No proof of Duterte in ‘critical’ condition    
• FACT CHECK: Viral photo of Duterte reunited with daughter Kitty is manipulated
• FACT CHECK: Duterte’s ICC case not dismissed; claim of insufficient evidence is false
• FACT CHECK: Duterte did not leave ICC detention for one hour; photo is AI-generated
• FACT CHECK: Photo of Kitty Duterte ‘in tears’ due to father’s health is altered    

– Shay Du/Rappler.com

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