Tom Smith

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Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte takes an oath as he attends a senate probe on his drug war in the Philippines on 28 October 2024. Duterte was arrested on March 11, 2025 after landing at Manila’s international airport on an International Criminal Court warrant. He was taken into custody in The Hague the following day. Photo: © Jam Sta Rosa / AFP

MundoAsia,

The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Rodrigo Duterte’s “drug war” has been ongoing since 2017. Duterte served as president from 2016 to 2022 and although he withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, he remained liable for crimes committed up to 2019. Depending on how far back the court wants to go, Duterte was also mayor of Davao city in the southern Philippines from 1988. He has openly admitted to killing people himself and with his Davao Death Squad, whose extrajudicial executions are well documented.

The Hague court has called for witnesses -- somewhat naively, given the danger it may put people in.…  Seguir leyendo »

In the Philippines, the political battle rages between the two dynasties that share power, that of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr (effigy left) and his Vice-President Sara Duterte (right), daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, responsible for an anti-drug war that is said to have claimed 20,000 lives. Photo: © Ted Aljibe / AFP

MundoAsia

Unless you follow Filipino politics or all the current 17 ongoing investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC) you can be forgiven for missing this story. And it’s a good one. It tells us much about the interaction of politics with international law and the reliance of an ICC prosecution on the very people it is supposedly investigating. All casting a dark shadow on the ability of the court to do its job independently without politicisation and showing us just how political ICC investigations are.

In the Philippines, 2025 begins with incumbent President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr (son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr, who ruled from1972-81) fighting an open battle of insults with his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Sara – who happens to be Bongbong’s very own vice president – for now.…  Seguir leyendo »

Duterte (left) with the Philippines’ armed forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Noel Clement. Rolex Dela Pena/EPA

MundoAsia

The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, decided to terminate a prominent and unpopular military agreement with the US in early February. The move came as a direct response to Washington’s invocation of the American Magnitsky Act, which gives the US government the power to impose visa and financial sanctions on human rights abusers around the world.

But Duterte is using it as a pretext to push the Philippines, which is battling an ongoing series of insurgencies, closer to China.

Duterte’s “drug war” has killed over 20,000 people (nobody knows the true extent). In January, the US triggered the Magnitsky Act over the violence.…  Seguir leyendo »