In the first status conference of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the crimes against humanity case against former President Rodrigo Duterte, discussions included the possibility of conducting parts of the proceedings in Filipino, along with issues with interpretation and the proposed trial schedule.

The panel of the prosecution proposed the possibility of starting the trial earlier than initially scheduled. Principal Counsel Paolina Massidda of the Office of Public Counsel for Victims said consultations with clients showed openness to an earlier trial date.

“After resubmission of the parties, we had further consultations with our clients. They are amenable to start this trial on November 30, which at the moment seems to them still a reasonable period of time,” Massidda noted, adding that January 2027 is considered “still too long.”

Presiding Judge Joanna Korner raised concerns over the availability of interpreters for witnesses expected to testify in Filipino.

“There is a problem raised that we don’t have interpreters ready as yet to deal with the two languages that are apparently going to be spoken by some of the witnesses,” Korner said.

She added that interpreter recruitment may be manageable, and that field interpreters could be trained for court use.

Marc Dubuisson, the director of the Division of Judicial Services of the ICC, flagged interpretation logistics as a key concern, specifically for witnesses who will require translation in the languages being spoken in the Philippines.

“There are a number of items we need to look at here, who will be interpreting for specifically,” Dubuisson noted.

He said the court will need to identify and train interpreters for simultaneous interpretation, adding that some witnesses may testify in English while others will require interpretation.

“Our top priority is the language of the accused and the language of the witnesses,” he emphasized.