Former president Rodrigo Duterte was symbolically brought to the Senate by his allies last Thursday. The intention was to expose the abuses committed against Duterte, rebuke the invited representatives of the government, and force them to admit that the former president was kidnapped and illegally flown to The Hague. In an embarrassing turn of events, however, what the Duterte allies managed to facilitate is the figurative infliction of fatal shots on Duterte that has worsened his chances of ever getting freed by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Senate committee hearing was called by Sen. Imee Marcos, who has an enormous axe to grind against his brother, the First Lady, the House Speaker, and just about every Filipino voter who refuses to succumb to her election campaign entreaties. She was joined by Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Jinggoy Estrada, both unabashedly proud Duterte supporters like her. Senator Marcos went in guns blazing in an attempt to bamboozle government officials led by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla. Remulla fired back with two explosive revelations that completely turned the tables on the senators. It was a monumental fiasco, and Duterte-allied senators may have sealed the certainty of criminal conviction of the former president for crimes against humanity.
First, Remulla revealed that “(w)hen we look(ed) at the records of the wrongful death situations” during the Duterte administration, obviously referring to the drug war killings, “there were really no police reports, maybe 95 percent had no police reports.” Boom! It was a massive exposé, revealing the existence of very strong evidence that the extrajudicial killings were employed as a state policy in solving the problem of illegal drugs during the Duterte administration. If the killings were legitimate police operations or merely ordinary killings, there would have been police reports documenting them. But “no police reports” pivotally show that there was a state intention to systematically hide and cover up the evidence of virtually all the killings during the drug war.
Second, Remulla released another bombshell by declaring that the drug war killings could not be investigated because prosecutors were threatened by the police during the Duterte administration. Boom! This constitutes added explosive evidence that the drug war killings were pursuant to a state policy. In addition to there being no police reports, there were no prosecutorial investigations because the police prevented prosecutors from conducting investigations, by subjecting the latter to threats and intimidation.
The ICC case against Duterte is already bad enough for him because of his many self-incriminating declarations, such as when he owned up to masterminding the killings and when he publicly encouraged police officers to kill with promises of rewards, promotions, and protection. Now comes Remulla, revealing that the government has mountains of evidence showing that the police and prosecutors were compromised to hide the bloodied hands of the state, as then ruled by Mr. Duterte, in all those killings.
The singular criminal charge against Duterte that was sustained by the ICC pre-trial chamber when it issued a warrant of arrest is the crime against humanity of murder. This charge is not final. Even the total of 43 murder incidents cited in the warrant of arrest is not final. In the confirmation of charges hearings, which will take place starting on Sept. 23, the ICC prosecutor will still have the discretion to have other criminal charges confirmed, as well as apply to add more murder incidents. Between now and September, the ICC prosecutor can also continue to gather more evidence that its team can use during the trial.
With what happened in the Senate last week, it should not surprise anyone if the government will take the initiative of handing over to the ICC the factual evidence backing up the explosive twin revelations of Remulla. The war between the Marcos and Duterte dynasties reached a point of no return when the former president was surrendered to the ICC. The Marcos government can no longer do anything to bring Duterte back to the Philippines. Not even our Supreme Court can order that Duterte be brought back to the Philippines. It is only the ICC that can decide on the matter, and it will do so on the basis of law and not on political considerations.
It’s baffling how the Duterte dynasty has the gumption to think that it can afford to engage the Marcos dynasty in an all-out war and expect to win when the ruling dynasty holds the key to the closet of skeletons that are all tainted with the bloodied fingerprints of the Duterte patriarch. The Marcoses and the ICC are minor enemies of the Dutertes. The Dutertes’ major enemies are their ego and hubris.
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