THE HAGUE: Philippine ex-president Rodrigo Duterte, facing International Criminal Court charges over his deadly narcotics crackdown, said “everything I did, I did for my country,” his daughter told reporters Friday.
Sara Duterte, who is also her country’s vice president, was briefing journalists at the detention center in The Hague after a long conversation with her father interned inside.
She also relayed that her father wants proceedings against him to move as quickly as possible, with the 80-year-old fearful of dying in custody.
“Everything I did, I did for my country. (I don’t know) whether that statement is acceptable or not, but I want it out to the world,” said Sara, relaying her father’s words.
The vice president would not be drawn as to whether this amounted to an admission of responsibility for the crimes her father is facing at the ICC.
It was the first reported comments from Rodrigo Duterte since he appeared tired and dazed at an initial appearance at the ICC, which he attended by videolink and barely spoke.
In a video posted when Duterte arrived in the Netherlands last month to face the charges, he had said “I will be responsible for all of this.”
Duterte stands accused of the crime against humanity of murder over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups said killed thousands.
In the prosecutor’s application for his arrest, he said Duterte’s alleged crimes were “part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population in the Philippines.”
“Potentially tens of thousands of killings were perpetrated,” the prosecutor alleged of the campaign that targeted mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.
In an interview with AFP earlier Friday, a lawyer for victims, Gilbert Andres, said loved-ones of those affected were seeking “truth and justice” from a potential trial.
The next hearing is scheduled for September 23, where the charges against him will be laid out, but Sara Duterte said her father was eager to get proceedings underway.
“He wants to go back to the Philippines. He said, ‘I am an old man. I can die anytime. But I want to die in my country’,” said Sara Duterte.
![]()
Everything I did was for my country, Duterte says via daughter
Short Url
https://arab.news/b4v64
Everything I did was for my country, Duterte says via daughter
- “Everything I did, I did for my country. (I don’t know) whether that statement is acceptable or not, but I want it out to the world,” said Sara, relaying her father’s words
- The vice president would not be drawn as to whether this amounted to an admission of responsibility for the crimes her father is facing at the ICC
Second Iranian ship heading to Sri Lanka after submarine attack
- A second Iranian warship was heading toward Sri Lanka’s territorial waters Thursday, a day after a US submarine destroyed an Iranian frigate, killing at least 87 sailors, a minister told parliament
GALLE: A second Iranian warship was heading toward Sri Lanka’s territorial waters Thursday, a day after a US submarine destroyed an Iranian frigate, killing at least 87 sailors, a minister told parliament.
Media minister Nalinda Jayatissa said the second Iranian warship was just outside Sri Lankan waters, but gave no further details.
Official sources said the vessel was carrying more than 100 crew and feared they too could be targeted the same way a sister vessel was sunk by a US submarine just off Sri Lanka’s southern coast on Wednesday.
The sinking came as the war sparked by a joint US-Israel attack on Iran continued to spread across the Middle East and beyond.
Authorities in the southern port city of Galle, meanwhile, were making preparations Thursday to hand over the remains of 87 Iranian sailors killed in the torpedo attack claimed by the US military.
Officials at the main hospital in Galle said 32 rescued Iranians were still being treated under tight security provided by police and elite commandos.
The Emergency Treatment Unit was off limits to visitors and other patients, with the medical authorities setting up a separate ward for the Iranians.
“Most of them have minor injuries, but there were a few with fractures and burns,” a nurse at the hospital said, without giving her name.
Navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath told AFP that Sri Lankan navy vessels were continuing their search for missing Iranian sailors.
Iran has not yet commented on the sinking.
Sri Lanka has remained neutral and has repeatedly urged dialogue to resolve the conflict in the Middle East.
Media minister Nalinda Jayatissa said the second Iranian warship was just outside Sri Lankan waters, but gave no further details.
Official sources said the vessel was carrying more than 100 crew and feared they too could be targeted the same way a sister vessel was sunk by a US submarine just off Sri Lanka’s southern coast on Wednesday.
The sinking came as the war sparked by a joint US-Israel attack on Iran continued to spread across the Middle East and beyond.
Authorities in the southern port city of Galle, meanwhile, were making preparations Thursday to hand over the remains of 87 Iranian sailors killed in the torpedo attack claimed by the US military.
Officials at the main hospital in Galle said 32 rescued Iranians were still being treated under tight security provided by police and elite commandos.
The Emergency Treatment Unit was off limits to visitors and other patients, with the medical authorities setting up a separate ward for the Iranians.
“Most of them have minor injuries, but there were a few with fractures and burns,” a nurse at the hospital said, without giving her name.
Navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath told AFP that Sri Lankan navy vessels were continuing their search for missing Iranian sailors.
Iran has not yet commented on the sinking.
Sri Lanka has remained neutral and has repeatedly urged dialogue to resolve the conflict in the Middle East.
Latest updates
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.