There was a sudden surge of euphoria when unexpectedly former President Rodrigo Duterte appeared in the International Criminal Court smiling, composed and apparently unbowed.
As we all are aware of, fPRRD was kidnapped March 11, 2025 at NAIA Terminal 3 upon his arrival from Hongkong where he talked before a tumultuous crowd of overseas Filipino workers. He was shanghaied to the Hague in Netherlands by private jet obviously leased by his captors. Before he was detained a charge sheet was red to him. He was accused of crimes against humanity for the murder of 43 individuals in the course of a drug war waged against the proliferation of drug syndicates in the country.
“Crimes against humanity” is something new to me so I made a cursory research about what it means. Google describes it as “severe, cruel acts committed as part of a large-scale or organized attack directed against a civilian population”.
Frankly, based on the number of cases read by ICC prosecutors, I do not know the bases how they qualified the case of President Duterte within the ambit of crime against humanity.
Duterte’s campaign against drugs includes rehabilitation of addicts and based on data more than a million victims were rehabbed. In Davao City heads of families that undergoes treatment are given at least ₱2,500 monthly to fend for the family needs.
For a country with a functional judicial system,
the Philippine Court could deal with any crime. But this was dispensed with by the same characters that kidnapped him who would cry a river in seeking justice from the same courts they deprived Duterte with.
There are several other factors to reckon with. The person who filed the case against Duterte, the late Atty. Jude Sabio, had withdrawn the case even before the trial began. He manifested that the case was politically motivated. The ICC however rejected the appeal saying that they have taken custody of the case. Furthermore, the Philippines had withdrawn its membership from the Rome Statute. But the ICC would have none of those concerns.
So they set the trial which was delayed on account of the health reasons of President Duterte. Recently Peter Haynes has taken over as the lead counsel for Duterte. As an initial move Haynes asked the prosecutors to refile the case on the basis that his client is not fully aware of the charges against him.
The legal strategy apparently impacted on the prosecution. Of late, the prosecution started posting on digital platforms its allegations that 1,500 to 2,500 victims of extrajudicial killings were buried in an abandoned quarry in Davao City. Why the prosecution suddenly came up with those bloated guesstimates could only be a vain attempt to increase the original alleged 43 victims to validate their claim that Duterte committed crimes against humanity.
The trickery though is certain to boomerang against the prosecution. Almost 20 years had elapsed since the Human Rights Commission, led by CHR Chairperson Leila de Lima. In 2009 she accused Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of the death of more than 2,000 victims by EKJ. She claimed that the victims were buried in an abandoned quarry in Davao City. Until today she has yet to produce a single piece of evidence and that is a fatal prevaricated issue.
Let me say it for the nth time.
The Davao Death Squad de Lima claimed was organized by Duterte and was behind the alleged EJK is a big lie. DDS was a phantom force created by Police Col. Dionisio Tan-gatue Jr as a psychological warfare against the NPAs in 1984 to 1985. In those days Duterte was an assistant city fiscal investigating police, military, members of civilian home defense force and NPAs.
Why Duterte is seen smiling in the trial is no surprise. The DDS is a ghost force and the thousands of EJK victims buried in a quarry is a figment of the mind of de Lima.
I had been privileged to come up close in many interviews to the leader we call Mayor President Duterte and I can almost hear him whispering:
“In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed”.
