The absurdity and wickedness of the ICC case vs Duterte and dela Rosa

THE more I study materials on the International Criminal Court (ICC), the more I find the case so utterly absurd, an abomination, an entirely propaganda-propelled fabrication.

The ICC was created in the aftermath of humanity’s worst nightmares in recent times, the result of civil wars in sub-Saharan Africa — genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass extermination, systematic rape campaigns, and recruitment of child soldiers.

All of the five persons accused and convicted by the ICC as well as those still undergoing trial were warlords in these African countries where the institutions of civilization had not taken root, where warlords contended with other rivals to capture state power.

They personally ordered the atrocities against their enemies and even boasted about their deeds in Western media, which shocked European countries into pushing for the establishment of the ICC.

It is shocking though that after having built a tribunal for genocidal civil wars and mass atrocities in African failed states, the ICC suddenly decided to use the same machinery against a democratically elected Asian president because of a domestic anti-drug campaign. That is like using a bunker-busting bomb to settle a barangay fistfight.

Putting President Duterte’s war against drugs in the same category as the African massacres is grotesque. Those convicted by the ICC were commanders of militias that mutilated civilians, enslaved women, conscripted children and massacred entire ethnic communities in wars that left hundreds of thousands dead.

Fight

Duterte’s fight against illegal drugs — however harsh, controversial, or legally questionable one believes it to be — was a state’s anti-crime campaign, openly debated in a functioning democracy, repeatedly upheld politically by voters, Congress, the courts and local officials. To equate it morally and legally with the Congo or Darfur atrocities is like equating an intense, even bloody anti-mafia crackdown with the Rwandan genocide. There have been many bloodier campaigns to fight illegal drugs and neutralize drug cartels elsewhere, such as in Latin America, especially Mexico and Columbia where there has been an estimated 100,000 killed in police and army operations. Yet only in the Philippines has the ICC alleged to have committed “crimes against humanity” that resulted from its government’s anti-drug campaign.

Why? Because this was the means to politically destroy Duterte and consequently her daughter’s assumption to the presidency in 2028, after Trillanes and the Marcos gang failed to find any of Duterte’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.

Sen. Ronald dela Rosa was morally right to refuse to be kidnapped and thrown to the ICC to stand trial on these preposterous charges. Yet five ignorant senators insist he give up his liberty and even a good part of his life to this grotesque injustice?

While Antonio Trillanes and Gary Alejano – leaders of two failed coup attempts against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo – filed the ICC case against Duterte in 2017, the plot was accelerated by the Marcos Jr. regime, with the aim of weakening his political support and preventing his daughter Sara from winning the presidency in 2028. The US Deep State would obviously benefit from this since Sara would likely follow her father in liberating the country from its vassalage to the superpower.

Marcos took as crucial partner in this evil plot the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and Risa Hontiveros’ quasi-left Akbayan party, which organized the demonstrations, undertook massive propaganda, and deployed its cadres in the legal field to demonize Duterte. Most prominent among these is Kristina Conti, who even managed to get an appointment as ICC “assistant to the counsel,” which enabled her to demonize Duterte right in that institution.

Conti had headed the National Capital Region branch of the Left front organization, the National Union of People’s Lawyers. This organization has been headed by Edre Olalia, openly the counsel of the late CPP chairman Jose Ma. Sison and of the National Democratic Front. In a coming column, I will demonstrate in a future column how the CPP used the same template for the ICC case its successful campaign in a US court to portray its cadres and that of its New People’s Army as human rights victims and to get compensation as big as P1 million each, as was given to Sison and his wife.

Learn about the cases that resulted in an ICC conviction, and you will be aghast, as I have been, at the ruthlessness of Marcos and his minions to kidnap Duterte and send him to stand trial there, and are now also attempting to deliver to the ICC a senator voted to his post by 20 million Filipinos.

Here are the cases that the ICC has tried and issued guilty verdicts:

– Thomas Lubanga Dyilo of the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DR Congo. Lubanga was found guilty of conscripting and using child soldiers under age 15 during the Ituri conflict in Congo from 2002-2003.

– Germain Katanga, also of DR Congo and a militia commander in that region, was convicted in 2014 as an accessory to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 2003 Bogoro massacre there, in which 60,000 civilians were killed. The crimes included murder, attacks on civilians, destruction of property and pillaging. He received a 12-year sentence.

– Bosco Ntaganda of the Democratic Republic of Congo, dubbed as the “Terminator.” Ntaganda was convicted in 2019 on 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity — including murder, rape, sexual slavery, persecution, attacks on civilians, and use of child soldiers in the same conflict.

– Dominic Ongwen of Uganda, a commander of the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army, was convicted in 2021 on 61 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, rape, forced marriage, enslavement, and use of child soldiers in northern Uganda.

– Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz of Mali, who was convicted in 2024 for crimes committed during Islamist rule in Timbuktu in 2012-2013. Charges included torture, persecution, cruel treatment, and sham judicial punishments imposed by Islamist authorities.

– Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman of Sudan/Darfur, a Janjaweed militia leader convicted in 2025 for atrocities during the Darfur conflict, including murder, torture, rape, and persecution. An estimated 300,000 deaths had resulted from that civil war.

– Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and Alfred Yekatom of the Central African Republic. Convicted in 2025 for war crimes and crimes against humanity during sectarian violence in the Central African Republic. The crimes involved attacks on Muslim civilians, murder, torture, forced displacement and persecution.

The eighth was that of Jean-Pierre Bemba Central African Republic/Congo, who was initially convicted in 2016 — after a trial that took 8 years — for crimes committed by his troops, including murder and rape. However, in a dramatic reversal, the ICC Appeals Chamber overturned the conviction in 2018, acquitting him.

Twisted

Only in the twisted minds of the Left could Duterte be in the same league as these brutal killers.

The ICC actually has secured only a handful of convictions for its core crimes despite operating for over two decades and spending more than a billion euros. All of those convicted have been African leaders of militia and paramilitary groups, one reason critics accuse the court of disproportionately targeting weaker states, all in Africa.

Why is Duterte being tried? Other than the explanation that there is likely a secret US operation to get the ICC to convict Duterte — which would take him and his daughter out of the Philippine political landscape — this is a desperate attempt by the court to shed its reputation as a racist institution targeting only African countries.

Another mundane explanation is that the ICC is running out of cases to try, leaving it only with the crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the US, Russia and Israel to pursue. These countries, however, have refused to recognize ICC jurisdiction. Other than the freezing of assets of ICC officials and a travel ban on them, US President Donald Trump has even declared that any ICC investigator found in the US will be arrested.

Critics say that the ICC has become such an autonomous organization fighting for its survival. The ICC has 18 permanent judges while the Office of the Prosecutor has 380 staff members. Its judges and prosecutors each get a salary equivalent to P22 million even if they are handling no cases, and criticisms against the ICC are growing louder because it has spent billions of euros with only a handful of convictions. With the internecine atrocities in Africa unlikely to be reappeared in Africa, the ICC is increasingly pressured to reduce its bureaucracy, and reduce its staff of judges and prosecutors. The prosecution and trial of Duterte has been heaven sent for it to justify its bloated staff.

Those who claim Duterte and dela Rosa should be tried by the ICC are grossly ignorant, deliberately or not, of what this neocolonial European institution is. Or so deeply wicked as to seize Duterte and dela Rosa and cast them into a fate that is worse than death, just to accomplish their political agenda.

---

Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao

X: @bobitiglao

Website: www.rigobertotiglao.com

The post The absurdity and wickedness of the ICC case vs Duterte and dela Rosa first appeared on Rigoberto Tiglao.

The absurdity and wickedness of the ICC case vs Duterte and dela Rosa
Source: Breaking News PH