MANILA, Philippines – At the airport in Manila just after Rodrigo Duterte landed on Philippine soil, his partner Honeylet Avanceña and youngest child Veronica “Kitty” Duterte appeared distraught, frantically consulting with their lawyer on board – Duterte’s longtime friend and former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea.
Jane Lee, who has spent the last years campaigning for justice against Duterte’s war on drugs, ran back home. Duterte, the former Philippine president whom she charges as the designer of a violent culture that killed her husband Michael in 2017, was going to be arrested.
“Alam niyo ba ano nagaganap ngayon? Si Duterte maaaresto na sa wakas (Do you know what’s happening? Duterte is going to be arrested finally),” Lee told her three young children.
Lee said she wanted her children to understand why she had taken up the cause, why their mother constantly appears on the media going up against a very powerful man. “Gusto kong malaman nila kung gaano ako katapang, kung ano ang pinapasok ng nanay nila (I wanted them to know how I brave I am, what I was getting myself into),” Lee said.
Duterte was arrested swiftly at the airport and brought to a nearby military airbase, where he spent the next 12 hours before he was put on a plane to The Hague to face the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity. Duterte is now detained in The Hague.
Justice advocates call it not only historic for the Philippines, but for the ICC as well which is constantly doubted for its efficiency in bringing powerful people to its custody. Addressing Filipinos and the world after the arrest, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said it served as an example that “international law is not as weak as some may think.” But it could be stronger, he admitted. “When we come together, when we work, when we build partnerships, the rule of law can prevail,” said Khan.
When the dust settled and she watched Duterte’s plane take off, Lee felt the weight of it all. It could not be pure happiness, she said. She wishes, at the end of the day, that their lives were normal.
“Kaya hindi ko rin po masabi na sobrang saya ko dahil sa kabila po ng saya na nararamdaman ko, yung kirot na bakit kailangan pa naming gawin ito ng paulit ulit, kung pwede lang pong ibalik yung dating buhay namin, yung buhay na simple lang po, yung hindi po ganito, katulad nung yung sana hindi na lang po sana sila pinatay,” said Lee.
(That is why I cannot say I’m very happy because on the behind my happiness I am feeling is the pain that why do we need to do this again and again? If I can only bring our lives back our lives, our simple lives, which wasn’t like this. A life where my husband and the others were not killed.)
“Pero hindi na po mangyayari ‘yun. Kaya alam po naming ito lang ang sandata namin para ituloy ang laban na ‘yan, hanggang sa imbestigasyon hanggang sa makulong siya, hindi po kami titigil,” Lee added.
(But that will not happen. So we know that this is our only weapon to continue our fight, from the investigation until he is in jail, we will not stop.)
‘Nobody should be happy’ – Marcos
Soon as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr learned of the Interpol’s request to help arrest Duterte, he was “melancholic” according to Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla who was with the president in Malacañang that fateful morning of Tuesday, March 11, when they began to set in place the arrangements for the arrest.
“He said something to me which really struck me, because it was only the two of us going to the Palace from the residence. ‘Nobody should be happy, there is no reason to celebrate’,” Remulla told Rappler, recalling his conversation with Marcos.
“I think there were memories of the past which filled his head, I cannot speak for him, but memories of the past of 39 years ago,” said Remulla, referring to the ousting of Marcos’ father, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos. Deposed by a people power revolution, the young Marcos Jr joined his father and the entire family on the plane to Hawaii where they were exiled for six years.
Dahlia Cuartero spent that same Tuesday morning pulling her children out of their computers where they were working to monitor the television. Cuartero’s son Jesus, or ‘Daboy, was killed when he was 26 years old in a police buy-bust in Bulacan in 2019.
“Magbukas kayo ng TV, huhulihin na si Duterte, bababa na ang eroplano niya. Niyakap nila ako at nagsindi agad sila ng kandila, ‘yes Mama, nabigyan na ng katarungan si Daboy’,” Cuartero said.
(Open your TV, Duterte is going to be arrested, his plane is about to land. They hugged me and they lit candles and told me, ‘Yes Mama, Daboy will finally get his justice. is finally given for Daboy’.)
Like Marcos, Cuartero cannot be happy, but for very different reasons. Cuartero knows they are in for another long haul, especially because Duterte can now start applying to the ICC for an interim release. Not to mention that Duterte’s children have filed two petitions asking for the Supreme Court to compel Philippine authorities to get their father back.
“Huwag sanang makawala pa si Duterte. Yun talaga ang nararamdaman ko. Sobrang saya. Yung sayang hindi pa ganap kasi marami pang prosesong pagdaraanan,” said Cuartero.
(I wish he never gets out, that’s what I feel. I feel very happy, but not completely because there are still many processes to go through.)
Other perpetrators
The ICC warrant of arrest describes Duterte as an “indirect co-perpetrator” of the estimate 27,000 extrajudicial killings that happened nationwide in his war on drugs, and the other killings when he was mayor of Davao City in the hands of the notorious Davao Death Squad (DDS).
Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, the architect of the drug war and who is named in witness affidavits to the ICC as being a DDS member too, has sought the help of the Senate President in case there is a warrant for him. Apart from Duterte, the ICC has not publicly named anyone as suspects – which is a special feature of the court.
“Hindi po ako kuntento na si Duterte lang po ang mananagot, dapat po lahat ng mga kasangkot ni Duterte kagaya ni Bato, ni Bong Go, at mga kapulisan sa community, dapat po silang kasama ni Duterte,” said Emily Soriano, whose 16-year-old son Angelito was killed by vigilantes after Christmas day in 2016.
(I am not content that only Duterte is held accountable. It should include the other perpetrators too – Bato, Senator Bong Go, and the other policemen in the community, they should all join Duterte.)
Local vs international justice
Vice President Sara Duterte has rallied their supporters to condemn this indictment by foreigners, saying in a mix of English and Filipino: “If you were a Filipino, you would never follow foreigners in your own country. We are not Filipinos for nothing.”
What the victims would like to remind Filipinos is that they tried to get justice in their own country. Instead they couldn’t obtain documents to file their cases, and the cases that they managed to file were dismissed. Rappler’s own reporting throughout the nine years since the drug war began also shows the large gaps in the investigative and prosecutorial system that failed to do anything substantial for the victims. So far there are only 4 convictions in the drug war, feared to be the last.
Even under Marcos, especially before his alliance with the Dutertes collapsed, the reinvestigation of 52 showcase cases failed. The cases filed over the killings of activists and other human rights defenders, which groups say fall within the scope of the crimes against humanity, have not progressed.
Some were even rejected in the prosecutorial level, said Josalee Deinla the secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).
“We have elevated this to the Secretary of Justice but we were told the Office is a graveyard for petitions of review,” Deinla said in Filipino.
“This is an opportunity for Marcos to show that Duterte’s arrest is not only an issue of the 2028 elections, that this is not just na issue of Marcos trying to put down Duterte. The challenge for the Marcos administration is to show that this is part of an effort against impunity,” said progressive former lawmaker Teddy Casiño. – Rappler.com