‘Budol King’: Duterte, ICC, and the ‘Solid South’
Hubris and folly finally caught up with the old man. Just months after mocking the International Criminal Court (ICC) and days after displaying characteristic bravado before a legion of cheering fans in Hong Kong, former president Rodrigo Duterte ended up in The Hague. The image of him appearing before ICC judges, albeit via video link, was beyond surreal. He was in a formal suit, looking quite dignified but bereft of all the braggadocio. Instead of defiance, he displayed pitiful frailty—suddenly hardly able to articulate basic facts about his life. What is his full name? When and where was he born? Even those questions seemed overwhelming to him.
Then it became a full-blown tragi-comedy. His de facto defense lawyer and former consiglieri, Salvador Medialdea, was clearly out of place, struggling to adjust to the standards of a world-class court. All he could do was to read a statement, barely! None of the Duterte-style antics and drama would fly in an international standard court. This was the real deal. Appeals to emotion were pointless in the face of a seriously minded institution.
Comically, Duterte might end up relying on the counsel of his former spokesperson Harry Roque, a certified lawyer before the ICC, who confidently denied the existence of any arrest warrant just the other week. But that same person could face extradition back to the Philippines for alleged involvement in anomalous activities in the Chinese online casino or Philippine offshore gaming operators world. In short, Duterte’s best possible lawyer—the “elusive” Roque—is himself under a “manhunt” by Philippine authorities.
The gallery of rogues surrounding Duterte may also explain why he foolishly decided to abandon a safe exile in China. He may have, indeed, been a victim of false information, double agents, and the sheer incompetence of loyal yet visibly tier-three lackeys. And there was no sign of cavalry, neither from Duterte’s “beloved” China nor his “buddy” United States President Donald Trump. Politically, Duterte made the ultimate mistake: he messed around with the “OG” (original gangsters) of Philippine dynastic politics, the Marcoses.
The Duterte camp seems shell-shocked. Some of them want to hold “people power” even if they have struggled to mobilize more than a few hundred in the past years. Others want a ”hunger strike” until Duterte returns, but the trial might take up to eight years. Go figure.
At this point, their best chance is to portray not only Duterte but his entire “Solid South” base in Mindanao and beyond as victims of a supposed conspiracy by “Imperial Manila.” No wonder then, the Duterte-backed troll machine was intent on splicing and maliciously twisting my words out of context in one of my interviews on the ICC arrest, where I highlighted, inter alia, the injustices against Mindanao by comparing its Human Development Index (HDI) to some Sub-Saharan African nations.
Mind you, a good number of African nations are medium range in terms of HDI, which measures not only income but also life expectancy and education levels, while South Africa is an industrialized economy by some standards. Nevertheless, how I wish I had more than 30 seconds to explain the legitimate grievances of Mindanao folks and the complex dynamics feeding Duterte’s support base. And yes, I had to be mindful of any comparison that could come off as derogatory. Hence my sincere apologies for any unintended hurt to my beloved countrymen in Mindanao.
Ultimately, however, this is not about politics nor raw data. This is about Duterte’s disastrous legacy, from his false claims about ending criminality in “three to six months” to his catastrophic mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as countless faulty infrastructure projects, including thousands of dodgy flood control projects. Clearly, this is about coming to terms with his “budol” legacy. More importantly, this is about justice for thousands of our countrymen, including at least 122 children, who perished under Duterte’s drug war by 2022. The Marcos administration has yet to advance a principled position on the issue, so the best it can do now is to encourage the Senate to rejoin the ICC and crucially, establish a “Truth and Justice Commission” for the countless victims and their surviving loved ones, who never had their day in court. They are the ones who truly deserve our empathy and support, not alleged international criminals enjoying all the privileges of “First World due process” at The Hague.
