Mr. President, let’s now rejoin the ICC
With a clear majority of Filipinos supporting our country’s return to the International Criminal Court (ICC), President Marcos is presented with a rare chance to step out of his father’s controversial shadow. By heeding the call to bring our people back to the mantle of protection of the international court, Mr. Marcos can craft his own legacy as a president who values human rights.
In a survey conducted from April 20 to 24 by OCTA Research, 57 percent of Filipinos support the country’s return to the ICC. Meanwhile, 37 percent said they were opposed to it, while 6 percent were undecided. The survey was done more than a month after former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested and brought to the ICC detention facility in the Netherlands.
With Vice President Sara Duterte leading in surveys for prospective presidential candidates in the 2028 elections, our country direly needs to regain its membership in the ICC. From all indications, VP Sara has shown a propensity for violence equal to or even more than what was exhibited by her father. She repeatedly punched a court sheriff who defied her orders in full public view and in the presence of the media. She has dished out assassination threats against the President, the First Lady, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Her father, while president, warned the public to “be careful” and not to mess with his daughter. VP Sara’s language and public behavior reek of a propensity for violence.
If VP Sara manages to win as president in 2028, the vast powers of the government will be utilized while heavily infused with the spirit of revenge. We can sense the huge craving for vengeance from the Duterte family, and, no doubt, they can’t wait to reconquer Malacañang Palace to exact revenge. It will not only be the security and lives of the Marcos family, the quad committee congresspersons, and military and police officers, who all made lives for the Dutertes a living hell (in the latter’s view), that will be in sure danger. The lives of drug war victims and their human rights advocates, who have contributed to the pursuit of justice against VP Sara’s father, will be at serious risk as well.
Just like what happened during the term of Rodrigo Duterte, the justice system will, most likely, again be unable or unwilling to stop any abuse of power that results in brazen human rights violations in a Sara Duterte presidency. It didn’t stop Rodrigo Duterte from committing crimes against humanity even while our country was an ICC member. All the more it will not stop a President Sara Duterte from potentially committing the same crimes if our country is no longer an ICC member.
Bringing our country back into the ICC fold will not only be a deterrent against national leaders who may plan to commit crimes against humanity against our people. It will also be a deterrent against foreign leaders who might commit war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression in our country.
An ICC membership for our country will be a legal armament we can wield against China. While China is not an ICC member, its leaders can be the subject of ICC prosecution if they commit international crimes in an ICC-member country. This is the reason why the ICC has issued warrants of arrest against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s also the reason why the ICC Prosecutor has applied for an arrest warrant against Myanmar’s Acting President, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. While the countries of these three leaders are not ICC members, they are accused of having committed international crimes in ICC member countries—Russia against Ukraine, Israel against Palestine, and Myanmar in Bangladeshi territory.
China holds two grudges against the Philippines that could potentially trigger the commission of international crimes by China against Filipino citizens. These are China’s claim over the West Philippine Sea and the hosting by the Philippines of American forces and weaponry which are prepositioned to stop China’s invasion ambitions against Taiwan. Our country’s membership in the ICC will make Chinese leaders liable before the ICC if they commit international crimes in the Philippines.
It may be true that the enforcement of ICC arrest warrants against powerful leaders like Putin and Netanyahu—and potentially Chinese leaders—will remain difficult, if not close to impossible. But the fact alone that these powerful leaders are considered criminal pariahs by most of the world, have arrest warrants hanging over their heads for the rest of their lives and will be eternally branded by history as international fugitives, will always have deterrent consequences.
Leaving the country with an international remedy to discourage and fight international crimes that can be committed against the Filipino people, will be a worthy legacy for Mr. Marcos.
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