Manila, Philippines - Philippine society has once again been plunged into extreme division following the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte. With the arrest of former President Duterte on March 11th, pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Philippine society is embroiled in a fierce debate between opposing sides.
Former President Duterte is scheduled to stand trial at the ICC for crimes against humanity for killings committed during his term as President of the Philippines (November 2011 – March 2019) and his time as Mayor of Davao City through his 'war on drugs.' This war has been criticized as not a fight against drugs or crime, but a war against the poor, an attack on the judicial system, and an abuse of power. As a result, thousands of Filipino children have been orphaned, and many have had to witness the murder of their parents.
The arrest of former President Duterte is welcomed by the approximately 30,000 victims of the drug war and human rights activists, but on the other hand, there are also loud calls for the release of former President Duterte.
Ideally, such division should not exist. National loyalty should be directed towards the Filipino people, not towards a specific leader or family.
A Painful Division
The arrest of former President Duterte is a historic victory against impunity and a step closer to truth, justice, and accountability. It is the result of years of documentation by human rights organizations and the courageous efforts of victims' families.
Lost lives can never be brought back, and irreversible damage has been done. However, the arrest of former President Duterte, the upcoming trial, and the eventual guilty verdict are a form of restoring dignity, helping victims and their families overcome their difficulties and regain control of their lives.
Victims who were stripped of their dignity were treated as expendable, brutally murdered, and further victimized through the desecration of their remains. When the five-year lease on victims' graves expired, families had to pay 5,000 pesos (approximately $87 USD), and if they could not afford it, the remains were exhumed.
However, not all Filipinos want former President Duterte to be found guilty. Since former President Duterte arrived in The Hague, his supporters have held rallies outside the ICC and in the Philippines and abroad, expressing their loyalty to the 80-year-old former strongman.
His supporters demand due process, which is something that Duterte's victims never enjoyed when they were extrajudicially killed simply on suspicion of drug use or sale.
Spreading fake news, purveyors are framing Duterte's arrest as a kidnapping, distorting the narrative and attempting to portray a human rights abuser as a helpless victim.
The path to justice and accountability is long and arduous. A guilty verdict for former President Duterte could take years, but hope remains for the victims' families. This division only exacerbates their suffering.
The Politics of Forgetting
In the 2022 presidential election, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ran with Duterte's daughter, Sara, as his running mate. The once-strong alliance eventually fractured, and some observers assess this as a catalyst for Duterte's arrest.
This arrest comes at a time of heightened political uncertainty, coinciding with impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, foreshadowing a clash between two major political families. Vice President Sara Duterte faces impeachment threats over allegations of corruption, plotting to assassinate the Marcos family, and involvement in extrajudicial killings during her time as Mayor of Davao City.
In 2018, former President Duterte desperately tried to evade accountability by withdrawing the Philippines from the ICC, which took effect a year later. In 2021, the ICC officially launched an investigation into Duterte.
Because the Philippines was a member state of the ICC when the drug war killings occurred, the ICC retains jurisdiction over crimes committed during that period.
Marcos Jr., who came to power in 2022, reiterated that the Philippines would not cooperate because it is not under ICC jurisdiction. However, a sudden turn of events led to the swift execution of the ICC arrest warrant for Duterte. Marcos Jr. emphasized cooperation with Interpol, of which the Philippines is a member, without mentioning the ICC.
These events have caused clashes between Marcos supporters and Duterte supporters, with each camp attacking the opposing family and defending their own.
The Filipino people should be wary of framing all of this as a story of the Duterte family versus the Marcos family. Instead, they should focus on achieving justice for and supporting the victims of human rights abuses, past and present.
Now we must ask: Will Marcos Jr. allow the Philippines to rejoin the ICC, a crucial tool for holding those accountable when domestic remedies fail? If not, what is he afraid of?
Disagreements over the arrest of former President Duterte are not the only divisions among Filipinos. They are also divided when remembering or misremembering the history of the Marcos era.
What we must not forget is that Marcos Jr. has never acknowledged or apologized for the human rights abuses during the oppressive Marcos era martial law.
While some monetary compensation has been given to victims, there have been no trials or prosecutions. Almost 30 years after the EDSA People Power Revolution, the Marcos family is back in power. This says a lot about the relationship between the Filipino people and their past.
Despite sufficient evidence of human rights abuses under the Marcos regime's dictatorship, many Filipinos continue to fall victim to disinformation and historical revisionism, portraying that dark period as a picture of glory and prosperity.
We see this topic omitted from school textbooks, propaganda spread through social media, a Marcos-era president buried in the Heroes' Cemetery, and advocates, including ordinary citizens and those in the highest positions of power, spewing lies and denials every day.
Now, the Filipino people must remain vigilant against efforts to erase and glorify former President Duterte's human rights abuses from our collective memory.
For every victim of extrajudicial killings, there is a grieving parent, spouse, child, friend, and a community left behind. The Filipino people must stand in solidarity with their fellow Filipinos whose lives have been destroyed by people like the Marcos-era president and former President Duterte.
Transitional Justice
In the Philippines, truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence – essential elements of transitional justice – are elusive.
Transitional justice refers to the ways in which societies respond to widespread and systematic human rights abuses. Without it, victims and survivors of human rights abuses are trapped in a cycle of impunity.
Moving forward, it remains crucial for the Philippine government to cooperate with the ICC in the coming months, even years.
Now more than ever, the Filipino people must unite for the conviction of former President Duterte and hold the current government accountable for acknowledging and addressing the atrocities of the Marcos-era president.
At the very least, an explicit acknowledgment and long-awaited apology from the current government could go a long way in restoring the dignity of the victims and ensuring non-recurrence.
We, the co-authors, come from different generations. One is old enough to have experienced the brutality of the Marcos-era martial law, and the other is young enough to have witnessed former President Duterte's drug war.
At this critical juncture in Philippine history, which could also affect other Asian countries ruled by increasingly authoritarian leaders, the two opposing generations we represent stand together in the hope that the human rights abuses committed by both oppressive regimes will never be forgotten.
One regime is not better than the other. Neither are heroes. Both are human rights abusers.
The conviction of former President Duterte would be a symbolic victory, sending a strong message not only to the Philippines but also to Asia and the world that violence and injustice will no longer be tolerated.
*Mary Aileen D. Bacalso is a human rights advocate and the current Secretary-General of Forum Asia, a regional network of human rights organizations across Asia. Preachy Rodriguez is a development worker and journalist. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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