The Duterte family received “credible information” that former president Rodrigo Duterte was found unconscious on the floor of his room inside the detention facility of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Vice President Sara Duterte said on Saturday, Sept. 27.

In a statement, the Vice President claimed that their family was not informed of what happened to the Duterte patriarch, who had to be subjected to laboratory tests after the incident.

“These alarming developments raise grave concerns about the capacity of the ICC to guarantee the security and safety of FPRRD,” the statement read.

“The continued detention of former president Duterte under such troubling conditions is not only unjust but inhumane. It amounts to punishment without having been convicted of any crime,” the statement added.

The younger Duterte further decried that the ICC could not even provide swiftly an “easily treatable” problem of her father’s ingrown toenail, and that it has “persistently ignored the clear need for a 24-hour bedside caregiver.”

“If the ICC is to remain true to its mandate as a court of justice, it cannot turn a blind eye to the health and wellness condition of FPRRD. To deprive an elderly man — abducted, denied his rights under Philippine law, and subjected to surveillance disguised as ‘welfare checks’ — of basic dignity and proper care is not justice. This is cruelty,” she stressed.

The Vice President was referring to the welfare check done by officials of the Philippines Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands, which the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said was part of the embassy’s consular duties to its detained citizens abroad.

The younger Duterte insisted that “there is no other reason” for her father’s continued detention “except to make him suffer for the complaint of disgraced former senator.”

Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, the former president’s staunchest critic, was the one who initiated the crimes against humanity of murder charges before the ICC.

Instead, the Vice President claimed that her father does not pose a flight risk, has never threatened and complainants, and has no intention to assume his duties as mayor of Davao City.

“The ICC should act now to rectify this gross injustice and ensure that former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte is afforded the proper care and, ultimately, the humanitarian considerations he rightfully deserves,” she said.

According to Duterte’s lead counsel, the ex-president reported to him that he fell twice in his cell, one of which resulted to his loss of consciousness.

“As a result of one of these incidents, he lost consciousness and was evacuated to hospital where he was assessed for cranial and brain injury,” Atty. Nicholas Kaufman said.

He explained Duterte was “fatigued from his detention and physically incapacitated by various medical conditions” due to his old age.

The lawyer, however, noted “none of this was reported either to the Defence team or to the family in real time.”

In a separate statement released on Saturday, the DFA said it has no knowledge of the reported incident involving the former chief executive.

“As to an alleged recent incident pertaining to the former President’s health condition, the Philippine Government has no information on such matter, and inquiries about it are best referred to the ICC Spokesperson,” it stated.

It also deferred to the ICC’s spokesman clarification of the consular visit incident in response to the Vice President’s claim that the welfare check was “nothing less than an abuse of power against a vulnerable individual.”

According to the ICC’s spokesman on Sept. 24, as cited by the DFA, the visit was in accordance with the ICC Rome Statute and relevant applicable rules, adding that it follows the international standards of detained persons having access to consular representatives.

Such visits, the ICC’s spokesman argued, “are strictly conducted with the approval or at the request of the person in detention.”

The DFA also maintained that the visit was made by embassy officials “in a professional, nonintrusive and respectful manner, and not by any other supposed ‘agents of the government’,” as alleged by the Vice President.

The Duterte camp is seeking the interim release of the former president to a third-party country, and is also urging the ICC’s pre-trial chamber for the adjournment of all legal proceedings against him because of his declining cognitive functions.

The former chief executive is facing multiple counts of murder charges for the thousands of killings in the name of his administration’s brutal drug war.

He was scheduled for a confirmation of charges hearing on Sept. 23 but this was postponed by the pre-trial court, citing the defense’s claim that Duterte is unfit to stand trial.