NEWS UPDATE: From 6 pm, interior chief Jonvic Remulla now says former speaker Martin Romualdez is expected to arrive in New Quezon City Jail in Payatas at around 12 midnight.
NEWS UPDATE: As of 10 pm, former speaker Martin Romualdez has yet to arrive in Quezon City Jail in Payatas for his detention.
Interior chief Jonvic Remulla earlier said that they expect Romualdez’s arrival to be around 12 midnight.
JUST IN. Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 denies Vice President Sara Duterte's request to inhibit the presiding judge in her grave threats case. Duterte filed the request on September 11 to ask Judge Ma. Angelica de Ramos to excuse herself from the case. "The Vice President will exercise all available remedies. We also received the court’s order requiring both parties to strictly comply with the sub judice rule and to refrain from publicly discussing the merits of the case," Paul Lawrence Lim, Duterte's lawyer, says.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) confirms that a subpoena has been issued to Senator Robin Padilla over his obstruction of justice complaint.
"The Department confirms that subpoenas were served on Sen. Robinhood Padilla and Lt. Col. Jean Alla Yasin Robles at around 2:30 p.m. today at the Senate, in connection with the pending complaint against them for alleged violation of PD 1829 (Obstruction of Justice)," DOJ spokesperson Raphael Martinez says.
The issuance of a subpoena is a standard practice in criminal investigation, particularly during the prosecutors' assessment of a complaint.
The Sandiganbayan 3rd Division denies former speaker Martin Romualdez's appeal on the ruling that ordered his transfer from the Philippine General Hospital to the New Quezon City Jail.
Romualdez executed a waiver to skip the reading of information against him, but the Sandiganbayan 3rd Division denied his request. Chairperson Associate Justice Karl Miranda then instructed Executive Clerk of Court to read the Ombudsman's six-page information or case against Romualdez.
The reading of information is currently ongoing. This is part of the arraignment process to ensure that the accused understands the allegations against him/her.
BREAKING: Former speaker Martin Romualdez, cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., pleads not guilty during the arraignment pertaining to his P7.44-billion plunder case. This means that the case will go to trial.
Good afternoon! We're covering the 3rd status conference of former president Rodrigo Duterte's crimes against humanity case at the International Criminal Court.
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Presiding Judge Joanna Korner confirms that Duterte is attending the hearing in person. This is the first time that he's attending a hearing.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte, who's facing three counts of crimes against humanity case over his drug war, personally appeared during the 3rd status conference hearing of his case at the International Criminal Court (ICC). This is Duterte's first in-person appearance, and his second overall after his online attendance during ICC's initial hearing on March 14, 2025. Presiding Judge Joanna Korner mentioned Duterte's attendance during the Wednesday hearing. ICC spokesperson Oriane Maillet confirmed this as well to Rappler.
LOOK: Former president Rodrigo Duterte appears during his 3rd status conference. This is the first time that he is physically present at the court and his second appearance overall since his initial online appearance on March 14, 2025.
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Notes from the hearing so far: - 193 hours for presentation of witnesses – prosecution. This is already the reduced version, said the prosecution. “We will look at every opportunity to streamline their case," said prosecution trial lawyer Edward Jeremy. - Prosecution says they originally needed 359 hours to present their witnesses. - Prosecution's Julian Nicholls: Part of that [the evidence] comes from the very large data set. He asked for a private session to describe this set. - Court went on private session
- Court asks if it's possible to lessen the number of witnesses. There are four expert witnesses on the same topic.
- Prosecution has 15k items of evidence. Court calls this "massive."
Duterte actually looks healthier in his latest ICC photos
Prosecution says it wants to prove "contextual elements" of the crimes against humanity and adds that they have"lots of evidence available."
So far, defense lawyer Peter Haynes is noting the large sum of the prosecution's evidence against Duterte.
He says the disclosure of this evidence has been awful, saying that they only knew about the large disclosure on July 15 or six weeks before the deadline of the disclosure.
Haynes says they considered acquiring an artificial intelligence tool to sift through the evidence, but it will cost nearly half a million Euros.
The chamber gives the defense seven days to file a motion on the disclosure, and seven days for the prosecution to respond. This is to settle the issue on disclosure.
Judge Korner gives defense until Wed next week to file its motion listing complaints and suggestions and the prosecution 7 days to respond. She said she is well aware of the problems of disclosure but that there is a need to resolve issues "sooner rather than later."
Disclosure is the part of the pre-trial proceedings where the defense is given the summary of evidence to allow them to prepare their legal arguments.
"[That's] part of fair trial guarantees for the accused," ICC assistant to counsel Ross Tugade told Rappler.
The 3rd status conference ended after a little over an hour – at 6:08 pm.
Prosecutor Julian Nichols said he wanted to respond to the complaints of the defense, primarily allegations about an "awful" disclosure and exhibits and files being in a "terrible mess". Judge Korner says she hopes both parties will "find some common ground" on how to handle these exhibits. Everything in writing rather than oral exchanges clearly saves the court precious time.