Rodrigo Duterte, the former Filipino President, swore to“defend [the Philippines’] Constitution, execute its laws, do justice to every man, and consecrate myself to the service of the nation. So help me God.”Through terrorising his people through “death squads” and extra-judicial killings, he has broken this inaugural oath. God should not help him. However, it is likely that Duterte will not reap the consequences of his actions until the reaper reaches him.
Duterte was handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by current Filipino President Bongbong Marcos in March 2025. Duterte is suspected of “crimes against humanity” during his war on drugs between 2011 and 2019. The World Organisation against Torture writes that while official Filipino sources report at least6248 deaths, human rights organisations “estimate the toll between 12,000 and 30,000.”
In Duterte’s pre-trial hearing, judges will decide whether there is enough evidence to prosecute him. 539 victims will help inform the judges’ decision. Watching these proceedings invoked the same feelings as when I watched Trump’s State of the Union address: disgust.
“Wherever you go, I will be waiting for you, even if I’m no longer president, as long as I have a gun.”
This is one of many quotes from Duterte that was played during the proceedings. The world is disillusioned with the ICC due to its perceived uselessness. The warrant for Netanyahu, for example, would carry the same weight with world leaders if a toddler scrawled their signature at the bottom instead of the ICC. I hope that this trial will progress and restore faith in the ICC’s ability to bite as well as bark.
Justice and deservedness are one and the same. Does Duterte deserve to stay in a high-tech hotel with a library, a personal trainer, and a personalised menu? Is this what justice means to the ICC? By no means should the ICC support brutal measures like corporal punishment or execution, but it’s important to remember that Duterte did. The Hague should not build its own Arkham Asylum. Nonetheless, Duterte and other criminals in the Hague, like the leader of a Sudanese militia, Al-Rahman, and Ratko Mladic, the “Butcher of Bosnia”, deserve to be in a prison of that repute, not in a repurposed student ensuite accommodation.
Duterte’s trial at the ICC is neither a story of justice nor an example of the greatness of our liberal international order. It is part of a story of corruption and elitism that keeps repeating itself. Filipino politics is a well of poison that never seems to run dry.
Bongbong Marcos used Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest as a political weapon against Vice President Sara Duterte, not a stab in the back, but a deliberate and visible strike. The family feud between the Dutertes and the Marcoses is a plague of locusts in the Filipino political apocalypse. Sara Duterte was impeached after accusations of plotting to assassinate Marcos and his family. Now she stands as Marcos’ opposition, and so what should be a legal case surrounding the victims of Duterte’s relentless persecution has now transformed into a case filled with propaganda and ulterior motives.
“Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte 09” by Addustour, Jordan Press & Publication Co. is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Duterte’s Trial Begins: a story of justice or a case filled with propaganda and ulterior motives?
Rodrigo Duterte, the former Filipino President, swore to“defend [the Philippines’] Constitution, execute its laws, do justice to every man, and consecrate myself to the service of the nation. So help me God.”Through terrorising his people through “death squads” and extra-judicial killings, he has broken this inaugural oath. God should not help him. However, it is likely that Duterte will not reap the consequences of his actions until the reaper reaches him.
Duterte was handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by current Filipino President Bongbong Marcos in March 2025. Duterte is suspected of “crimes against humanity” during his war on drugs between 2011 and 2019. The World Organisation against Torture writes that while official Filipino sources report at least6248 deaths, human rights organisations “estimate the toll between 12,000 and 30,000.”
In Duterte’s pre-trial hearing, judges will decide whether there is enough evidence to prosecute him. 539 victims will help inform the judges’ decision. Watching these proceedings invoked the same feelings as when I watched Trump’s State of the Union address: disgust.
“Wherever you go, I will be waiting for you, even if I’m no longer president, as long as I have a gun.”
This is one of many quotes from Duterte that was played during the proceedings. The world is disillusioned with the ICC due to its perceived uselessness. The warrant for Netanyahu, for example, would carry the same weight with world leaders if a toddler scrawled their signature at the bottom instead of the ICC. I hope that this trial will progress and restore faith in the ICC’s ability to bite as well as bark.
Justice and deservedness are one and the same. Does Duterte deserve to stay in a high-tech hotel with a library, a personal trainer, and a personalised menu? Is this what justice means to the ICC? By no means should the ICC support brutal measures like corporal punishment or execution, but it’s important to remember that Duterte did. The Hague should not build its own Arkham Asylum. Nonetheless, Duterte and other criminals in the Hague, like the leader of a Sudanese militia, Al-Rahman, and Ratko Mladic, the “Butcher of Bosnia”, deserve to be in a prison of that repute, not in a repurposed student ensuite accommodation.
Duterte’s trial at the ICC is neither a story of justice nor an example of the greatness of our liberal international order. It is part of a story of corruption and elitism that keeps repeating itself. Filipino politics is a well of poison that never seems to run dry.
Bongbong Marcos used Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest as a political weapon against Vice President Sara Duterte, not a stab in the back, but a deliberate and visible strike. The family feud between the Dutertes and the Marcoses is a plague of locusts in the Filipino political apocalypse. Sara Duterte was impeached after accusations of plotting to assassinate Marcos and his family. Now she stands as Marcos’ opposition, and so what should be a legal case surrounding the victims of Duterte’s relentless persecution has now transformed into a case filled with propaganda and ulterior motives.
“Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte 09” by Addustour, Jordan Press & Publication Co. is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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