Duterte’s ICC arrest: The Philippines gives the US a lesson in democracy

FILE – Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures during his speech in Davao, southern Philippines, on Jan. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Manman Dejeto, File)

Rodrigo Duterte came back from a weekend in Hong Kong on Monday night into Manila craving pizza, New York-style, according to Inquirer reporters.

He got something else.

The former Philippine president was served up a sense of justice and the rule of law. Duterte was promptly arrested by officials under the direction of the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC).

When I saw the breaking news, I couldn’t believe it.

First of all, it meant, finally, the court was going to act on what it called Duterte’s alleged “crimes against humanity.”

It all goes back to 2016, with Duterte’s war on drugs, an extreme law and order campaign that went over the line.

Police and vigilantes killed tens of thousands of people, many of whom were innocent.

The numbers were horrifying. And were deemed “extrajudicial,” because it was all outside of the law. In the fight against drugs, under Duterte, it was anything goes.

From 2016 to 2022, a total of 6,252 people were killed in anti-drug police actions, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

By the end of 2017, a report to the Office of the President put that number at 20,000 – in just the first 17 months of Duterte’s rule. Now Philippine officials can only speculate about what the real death toll has been throughout the entire six-year Duterte reign.

And when the government didn’t do enough, the families of victims refused to be ignored. They sought out the ICC to do something. And it did, it never stopped investigating. This week, it was ready to make their arrest.

On a plane to the Netherlands

By Tuesday morning after being held in custody by Philippine authorities, Duterte was on board a chartered jet to the Hague to begin the trial process.

President Bongbong Marcos, whose autocratic family was politically rehabilitated by Duterte, could have backed down – as a good crony would.

But to his credit Marcos didn’t, saying he was obligated to follow the rule of law.

Now that’s refreshing.

The son of a strongman dictator sees the light and allows Duterte to be sent to the ICC.

Duterte, soon to be 80, was seen in his heyday as the Brown Trump. Not a dictator, necessarily, just a strongman who acted irrationally and did what he pleased. He had no problem using a gun to persuade others to see his point.

It was once thought that Duterte and the Philippines could just ignore the ICC as many others have – like Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing or even Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

But under Bongbong Marcos, the Philippines didn’t.

And Marcos is only there because Duterte gave his father that hero’s burial.

 Putting a hero in the dirt

Duterte will be known for two things: killing a lot of Filipinos and restoring the dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ good name.

Germany couldn’t do it to Hitler. Duterte did it for Marcos.

“I’m just being legalistic about it,” said Duterte to the media about the hero’s burial at the time. “He was president, he was a soldier. That’s about it.”

Duterte was spectacularly modest about what that burial did. Ferdinand Marcos’ stats are horrific. According to Amnesty International, Duterte’s hero imprisoned 70,000 people during martial law, tortured 34,000 and killed 3,240 Filipinos.

The burial undid all that in the minds of Filipinos.  And made Duterte himself more acceptable than he really was.

You’ll note, Duterte’s record of killing of Filipinos far surpasses his hero’s.

But the extrajudicial killings were a worldwide concern. President Obama and members of the US Senate expressed their displeasure at one point and Duterte responded, calling President Obama a “son of a bitch”

“Who does he think he is?” Duterte said in a speech responding to White House officials saying Obama would confront Duterte on his handling of the drug war.

“I am no American puppet. I am the president of a sovereign country, and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people,” Duterte said. “Son of a bitch, I will swear at you.”

Duterte later regretted his comments after the White House cancelled its planned meetings with Duterte. But this was post-martial law/tough guy politics in the Philippines.

Duterte was the violent bully populist, a Brown Trump.

So it is with some irony that as the actual white Trump is bullying his way in the US, busting norms and extending his power to create an American strongman that can bend and break democracy, the Philippines is showing the world it knows what to do with those who overstep their power.

Sure, it took them almost 10 years, but finally it happened. With Duterte heading to the Hague, the rule of law, a tenet of democracy is being honored.

From the late 19th century to now, the US has always looked down on its “Little Brown Brother.” The Philippines was the first colony of the US, and when it finally realized it should shed its imperial dreams, the US shaped the Philippines as a democracy in the image of America. Three branches of government, a boatload of bureaucracy, and a lot of patis.

If the Philippines was “Little Brown Brother,” the US was Kuya Puti, or “Older White Brother.”

Now in 2025, it’s the Philippines that shows how to bring a one-time strongman to justice.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, commentator and humorist. He writes for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues since 1995. Find him on YouTube, patreon and substack.