Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have ruled ‌that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is fit to stand trial on charges linked to his violent “war on drugs.”

The ruling by Trial Chamber III, which was made on September 28 but only made public yesterday, was “based on the findings of an independent Panel of Experts as well as on submissions made by the parties and participants on these issues,” the ICC said in a statement.

“The Expert Panel unanimously found that the Accused has the capacity to understand the charges, understand the purpose and consequences of the proceedings, follow the course of the proceedings, including the nature and implications of entering a plea, understand the evidence, and instruct counsel in the preparation and conduct of his defense,” it said.

Duterte, 81, is set to go on trial on November 30, and faces three charges of crimes against humanity for extrajudicial killings carried out during the anti-drug campaign, a flagship policy of his administration between 2016 and 2022.

Duterte’s attorneys claimed last year that he was in frail health and that his condition was deteriorating in the ICC’s detention unit. In one filing in June, they argued that the ex-president’s illness and “advanced age” created “compelling humanitarian grounds” for judges to grant his interim release. In January, judges rejected the defense claims, arguing that Duterte “is able effectively to exercise his procedural rights and is therefore fit to take part in the pre-trial proceedings.”

The September 28 ruling comes in response to a separate petition, submitted in September 2025, in which Duterte’s lawyers claimed that he was unfit to stand trial due to “cognitive impairment in multiple domains.”

The former leader has been in the court’s custody since his arrest in the Philippines in March 2025. In April, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I confirmed the charges against Duterte and ordered the case to go to trial. The chamber’s judges concluded that “there are substantial grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder.” These crimes “were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population on the territory of the Republic of the Philippines.”

Specifically, Duterte is charged with the murders of at least ⁠76 people and the attempted murder of two ​others. Nineteen of the alleged murders were carried out between 2013 and 2016, when Duterte was mayor of Davao City. The remainder were committed during the “war on drugs” campaign, which Duterte launched upon becoming president in 2016. The campaign resulted in a death toll of at least 6,000 – the official estimate of the Philippine police – but independent estimates run as high as 30,000.

However, during an in-person appearance at the ICC last month, Duterte was thin and haggard, suggesting that questions about his health and advanced age will continue to hang over his trial. With this in mind, Presiding Judge Joanna Korner at a status conference last month expressed concerns about the volume of evidence in the case against Duterte and the length of the prosecution case. She said the chamber was “very anxious” that the prosecution case should conclude “as swiftly as possible in the circumstances,” so that Duterte lives to see a verdict.