He was transported thereafter to The Hague, Netherlands, where he was placed in the ICC’s detention center on March 12. His initial appearance before the ICC was on March 14, 2025.
Finally, the road to justice for the thousands of victims, mostly coming from the poor, of the extra judicial killings (EJKs) during Duterte’s war on drugs has begun. A reason for hope for many of us Filipinos, but also a reason to continue our unwavering fight for human rights in the Philippines.
It is sad that our own judicial system in the Philippines has failed to protect and give justice to the victims of Duterte’s war on drugs from summarily execution without any judicial process. This only shows the importance of having an international judicial body as the ICC, who could step in in cases of a failing national judicial system.
So, after having explicitly expressed where I stand on the matter of Duterte’s arrest by the ICC, I would like to talk about some matters around his arrest.
What does this say about our Philippine society?
That our judicial system failed in curbing the extra judicial killings, instigated by a president of our country, has far reaching implications for Philippine society, this tells us a lot about our society. Killings as a norm to stop a societal problem, such as drug addiction, became acceptable to a vast number of Filipinos. In a birthday party of a friend in the Netherlands I recall a remark of one of the Pinays attending the party, “Grabe talaga iyang drugs na iyan, tama si Duterte, patayin na lang lahat ng drug addict para tapos ang problema. Dapat lahat ng batang lalaki mula 12 years old patayin na lahat, at ang mga kabataang lalaki naman ang nagiging drug addict.” (Our drug problem is really terrible, Duterte is right, just kill all the drug addicts, problem solved. All young boys from 12 years old should all be killed, as it is specially the young boys who become drug addicts.) Nobody reacted to her, except me. And some just laughed at her remarks, seemingly not scandalized with such a remark.
The EJKs during Duterte’s presidency and the inability of our judicial system to stop it also showed that “poor lives don’t matter in the Philippines”, a glaring reflection of the grave inequalities in our society – poor people having less opportunities, less (human) rights and are being looked down on by many from the higher social classes.
A political feud between Marcos and Duterte
In my fb timeline I saw posts of some friends, of former kasamas (comrades) to my surprise, thanking President Bongbong Marcos (BBM) for expediting the arrest of Duterte by Interpol. In their posts they are praising BBM for his role in meting justice to the victims of Duterte’s EJKs. This is far from true. We all know that BBM’s motivation to have Duterte arrested is to eliminate his political opponent and has nothing to do at all with rendering justice to the EJK victims. Thanking BBM for this political move is definitely out of place.
If there is anybody to thank for Duterte’s arrest by the ICC, then they are the human rights organizations, groups of overseas Filipinos, and Rappler who have untiringly raised the issue of EJK in the international arena. Such that it took the attention of the ICC for it to investigate on the crimes against humanity brought about by Duterte’s war on drugs.
A polarized Philippine society
The events around Duterte’s arrest stirred a lot of emotions from the Filipino people, inside the Philippines and abroad. Understandable. As the saying goes “Politics is 90% emotions.” Our political standpoints are driven by our convictions and what we believe (think and feel) to be just and right. These are all subjective. Sadly, enough these emotions get the overtone, when kept unguarded, in our thoughts and actions. And this is precisely what I have been seeing these past few days in my fb timeline – toxic words and insults uttered back and forth from both sides. I have seen words as rotten brain, poor comprehension, stupid, bobo (dumb), red tagging of the anti-Dutertes by the pro-Dutertes, and many more. These toxic words and insults are also fueled by fake news going around social media. I believe that these toxic words and insults will not bring us anywhere, they will only bring us to greater polarization. And I passionately believe that a polarized Philippine society will only harm the Philippines even more.
With the upcoming elections in May I am afraid that many people will be voting only on the basis of ‘whether a candidate is pro- or anti-Duterte’, instead of evaluating candidates whether they are fit (personal character and political program) for the public office they are running for.
Moving forward with an open heart
We must break loose from this spiral of negativity we are in. And I believe we can only do this with an open heart. An open heart allows us to listen to what the other is trying to say, without judgements. An open heart allows us to try to understand what the other is trying to say, without ‘filling in the blanks’ for that person, or ‘putting words in their mouth.’ Listening to and trying to understand the other does not mean agreeing with the other. But rather, dealing with the other with kindness and compassion, even if the other’s heart is kept closed. This is the challenge we must face, to come out of the quagmire of hate and negativity we are in, to move forward.
