Foul language became a defining, and often controversial, hallmark of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s persona. His political brand was built on a “big mouth.”

Supporters cheered his profanity-laced tirades as the raw authenticity of a “punisher” willing to do whatever it took to keep the streets safe. But at last week’s confirmation of charges hearings at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, that same bluster was transformed from political theater into the prosecution’s Exhibit A.

Over four days, the court saw a high-stakes tug-of-war over the weight of Duterte’s words. Prosecutors called his public statements the “smoking gun” linking the mayor-turned-president to a systematic campaign of extrajudicial killings. The defense called them the “colorful and crusty” hyperbole of a populist whose words were never meant as literal death warrants.