The wheels have turned slowly, but international justice is finally apparently coming for former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte for his alleged lead role in rights abuses and crimes against humanity perpetrated during the previous government’s deadly war on drugs campaign.
Duterte has repeatedly denied any culpability for the killing spree that allegedly took tens of thousands of lives without due legal process. Last week, former police colonel Royina Garma told a parliamentary committee the former president had offered police officers up to US$17,000 to kill suspected drug users and dealers.
According to Garma, Duterte wanted to model his nationwide crackdown on drugs on the previous campaign he spearheaded as mayor of Davao City, in which payments and rewards were given to police officers who killed rather than arrested drug suspects.
The damning allegation has spurred new calls for the evidence to be handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which started investigating killings under Duterte’s government in 2017. Duterte told his officials not to cooperate with the ICC and famously threatened to feed its investigators to “crocodiles” if they entered the country.
The war on drugs was extremely popular according to various opinion polls and was Duterte’s policy centerpiece during his six-year tenure between 2016 and 2022. The war unleashed years of deadly anti-drug operations and vigilante violence that saw thousands of Filipinos killed, with some human rights groups claiming the figure could be as high as 30,000 people.
At the time, Duterte called for the “slaughter” of drug addicts and even offered to pay the legal fees of police officers accused of extrajudicial killings in carrying out the campaign.
The former president once used his inaugural press conference to urge people to kill drug dealers, while in 2020, he publicly ordered the country’s top customs official to shoot and kill drug smugglers.
Garma’s latest revelation has raised hopes of justice for drug war victims and their families. But current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has so far remained steadfast in his refusal to cooperate with the ICC in its pursuit of Duterte, telling media in January that he would “not lift a finger” to help its investigations.
Earlier, Marcos Jr’s refusal to cooperate was not surprising. While the two political families have little in common – the Marcos clan is known for its power and wealth while the Duterte’s are relative newcomers – they became political allies in the run-up to the 2022 election.
The alliance was sealed when the former president’s daughter, Sara Duterte, reached a deal to become Marcos Jr’s running mate in a bid to combine their voting blocs, a political marriage of convenience that swept Marcos Jr into power and put Sara Duterte in line to win in 2028.
But an increasingly bitter feud between the two families might give the president cause to change his mind on the ICC. The relationship has become irretrievably toxic, with Vice President Sara Duterte recently threatening to dig up the remains of the president’s father – former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Senior – and throw them into the sea.
This comes after her ex-presidential father publicly accused Marcos Jr of being a “drug addict” in January. He has also campaign against Marcos Jr’s strategic shift toward the US and away from China, undoing Duterte’s foreign policy legacy of warm ties with Beijing.
Sara dramatically resigned from Marcos Jr’s cabinet in June amid several public disagreements. At the same time, the Duterte’s are known to harbor fears Marcos Jr is planning to amend the constitution so he may run for a second six-year term, a potential challenge to Sara’s own bid for the presidency in 2028.
Marcos Jr has so far refrained from publicly criticizing his Duterte family rivals but that doesn’t mean he won’t ultimately cooperate with the ICC if serves his political purposes. There are reports the ICC is poised to issue an arrest warrant for Duterte, which could provide the perfect moment for Marcos Jr to make an untelegraphed move.
Cooperating with the ICC could weaken the Duterte clan and dent both father and daughter’s political ambitions, including the former president’s recently announced bid to seek the mayorship of Davao City, a position he held for several terms before becoming president.
It would also provide Marcos Jr with an opportunity to finally end the controversial drug war, a commitment he made during his successful election campaign. While the president has made a legitimate attempt at taking a new, less-lethal approach to tackling illegal drugs, drug-related killings have continued under his watch.
With polls showing newfound Filipino public support for the ICC’s probe, Marcos Jr has political cover to pivot and cease lethal anti-drug operations once and for all.
That would also open an opportunity to provide justice for the victims and families of the drug war by holding the ex-president accountable and assist the court in pursuing others involved in extrajudicial killings since 2016.
This is a potential win-win scenario for Marcos Jr. The president would win political points while closing a dark and deadly chapter in the country’s history, one that took the lives of tens of thousands and destroyed families along the way. It’s a political and moral opportunity for justice the president should take with both hands.