Dutete's ICC arrest is a victory for an order based on faln rules

Ishaan Tharoor
| Washington Post

For years, Rodrigo Dutete has acted as if it were untouched. As the President of the Philippines between 2016 and 2022, the fact that it should be frightened, mocked an investigation by the international criminal court in the suspicion of extrajudicial killings by thousands of people by his government, in an anti-drug repression, which is widely undressed. Under his hour, the Philippines withdrew from the court jurisdiction in 2019, Duterte and its allies decrypting the institution as an instrument of illegitimate Western prejudices and hegemony.

“Forget about human rights laws. If I reach the Presidential Palace, I will do exactly what I did as mayor, ”he said before his electoral victory in 2016.

“I will throw you all in the Gulf of Manila and I will fatten all the fish there.”

It seems that Duterte will face the process at the ICC, although six years later. On Tuesday, he was arrested in Manila on an ICC term and taken by Chartered Jet. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – with whom Duterte fell – said that his government would not help the ICC investigation, but respected the arrest warrant as part of his commitments to Interpol, the International Police Agency.

A spokesman for the ICC said that the court preventive chamber issued an arrest warrant for the “crime of murder, as a crime against humanity, which is supposed to have been committed in the Philippines” between November 2011 and March 2019 – a period when Manila remained in the ICC jurisdiction. The country’s government reported in 2022 that at least 6,252 people died “during anti -drug operations” in July 2016, although the rights and analysts suspect that the number of death is much higher.

The arrest and transfer of Dutete for criminal procedures marks a rare victory for the ICC. He is the first former Asian leader who went to The Hague under these conditions. The court is not recognized by the major World Powers, such as the United States and China, and its recent efforts to follow the war offenses between Israel and the Palestinian militant group in Gaza led to a furious reaction to Washington.

Last month, the Trump administration stressed the sanctions on the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, for his role in promoting the cases against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant.

The court issued only 60 arrest warrants in more than two decades and only 21 people have ever been officially detained and appeared before the court.

The groups of rights claimed that the arrest and transfer of Duterte to The Hague would strengthen the rule of law at world level. “The arrest of Dutete on an ICC mandate is a sign of hope for the victims of the Philippines and beyond,” said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, in a statement, requesting full “responsibility” for abuses of the Duperte era. “It shows that the author suspected of the most serious crimes, including government leaders, can and will face justice, wherever they are in the world.”

Callamard made a gesture to the ICC works to obtain signatories to his founding status to follow his arrest warrants. “At a time when too many governments refer to ICC obligations, while others attack or sanction international courts, Dutete’s arrest is a huge moment for the power of international law,” she said.

Dutete’s family, including his daughter, the rooted vice -president of the country, Sara Dutete, decreed the arrest mode and her transfer to The Hague. But they seemed to have little appeal to fight the procedures.

Meanwhile, the alleged victims of Dutete celebrated. “Finally, the justice is obtained slowly,” said a woman whose husband was killed in a attack in 2017, told Rapler news.

But there are reasons for pessimism, also the arrest of Dutete “highlights both the strengths and the weaknesses of international justice – mainly the weaknesses,” the economist noted. “On the one hand, a leader who ordered thousands of deaths without a proper process now, and perhaps a long term of prison. This could make other high office robbers think twice before committing similar influences. “

The British newspaper concluded: “On the other hand, the case only continues, because the political winds in the Philippines have changed.” This is due to a schism between the Marcos and Duerte clans in a country in which the feudal and political dynasties bear a disproportionate influence on the national scene. Duterte, who remained popular until the limits of the term forced him to give up 2022, saw that his daughter appeared as an apparent heir and won the vice -presidency on a common ticket with Marcos.

Their collaboration “thought to be a strong source of political coverage for the former president,” my colleagues reported. “But the Alliance broke down: after the political disagreements, the hostilities between the president and the vice -president reached a point of tilting in November, when Sara Detrete stated in an online press conference that he contracted someone to kill President Marcos Jr., if he was ever assassinated. At the beginning of February, Sara Dutete was accused by the Chamber of Representatives of the country of accusations of threat and corruption. She is facing a process of the Senate. “

The arrest of Dutete will rotate the waters before the elections in the middle of the period in the country. “Against this struggle with power, the nation continues to suffer from an political distracted government and inefficient governance dominated by self -served political dynasties,” wrote Andrea Chloe Wong in performer Lowy, an analysis place led by an Australian thinking leader. “Whatever the family is proclaiming Victoria, the Philippines remain those who are the best loss.”