Too bad that after the daylong wait on Tuesday for President Marcos Jr. to enlighten the nation on the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte, no one thought to ask, when he agreed to take questions, what he thought of his sister’s statement lamenting the supposed failure of Filipinos to learn from the past.

Minutes after the private jet bearing Duterte took off at 11:03 on Tuesday night, the President announced that his predecessor was en route to The Hague, to be tried by the International Criminal Court after the necessary procedures shall have been completed, on charges of crimes against humanity in relation to the brutal “war on drugs” that killed, according to rights groups, tens of thousands. His remarks on Duterte’s arrest were brief and covered matters generally already known in the course of the media coverage, and he spoke in the manner of one satisfied with the outcome of the day’s developments. If, as was eventually proven, Duterte was obligated to be forthwith transported to The Hague for trial after his arrest, the President’s silence, extended until the plane was finally airborne, looked to be good strategy.

And the news conference awaited since the late morning ended shortly after some significant questions were asked and answered, including whether there is a “physical” warrant of arrest (yes) and whether there has been cooperation between the Philippine government and the ICC (no, only with the Interpol, with which the Philippines has “commitments”). The President and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla briskly left the hall. The attentive observer gaping at the TV screen was left high and dry, wondering if the reporters were overcome by exhaustion or the question, granted it had been popped, was tossed out as irrelevant.

Pity

Earlier on Tuesday, Sen. Imee Marcos looked unhappy when reporters asked her to comment on Duterte’s arrest. She said she was filled with pity toward him (“awang-awa” was the term she used). She was also moved to recall former presidents in what she deemed a similar bind (her father in 1986, “si Erap, si GMA…”); she appeared to lump them and their varying circumstances and fates together. And then: “Guminhawa ba tayo (Did our condition improve)?” she said. “Hindi na tayo natuto (We never learn).”

The senator in effect said that the toppling of her father Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship (which restored democracy and fundamental freedoms in the country and earned global admiration for Filipinos), the removal from office of Joseph Estrada who would be found guilty of plunder, and the long hospital arrest of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on charges of electoral sabotage had been fruits of dirty politics—pamumulitika—and had amounted to nothing in terms of the people’s welfare. And now here’s another wrinkle in the form of the old man’s arrest: “Awang-awa ako sa matanda,” she said.

As flabbergasting as that may seem—suggesting among other things that Duterte’s arrest on orders of the ICC will not do anyone, including her brother the President, any good—it’d be wise to closely observe the nuances of power play in this evolving battle of the dynasties. 

Surprise

Duterte’s arrest at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport when he arrived in Manila on Tuesday from a jaunt in Hong Kong (about which the suspicion that he had been seeking asylum was raised), took most Filipinos by surprise. Nevertheless, his arrest and transport to Villamor Air Base where he was detained were apparently conducted with correctness and precision, with the arresting officers fitted with body cams. It is only lately, with the emergence online of vids showing Duterte’s partner and their child in various stages of dramatic agitation over his arrest, that the general public is apprised of unpleasant snags in the operation. 

The ex-president’s youngest child looks determined to make noise about his legal situation, aping his tough-guy stance, even appropriating the activist slogan “Never forget”—which pertains to the Marcos Sr. dictatorship and the terrible rights violations that occurred during the period—to mark her online log on his travails (for example, that he was offered a mere sandwich during the stopover in Dubai). She cannot be bothered by the existence of an arrest warrant signed by three women judges of the ICC. She is mouthing the claim of her sister, Vice President Sara Duterte, that their father is a victim of “state kidnapping.” She has also been heard swearing at government officials—a not-unfamiliar mode of behavior in the family. 

Like Senator Marcos, the Vice President ascribes her father’s arrest, and even her recent impeachment by the House of Representatives (on, among others, graft and corruption and other high crimes), to pamumulitika. These political machinations are being done, she told reporters after being refused entry to Villamor, with an eye to wresting public attention from the questionable 2025 budget and to affecting the 2028 presidential election. She said the administration’s act of surrendering her father to the ICC amounted to an insult to Filipinos, to making this country the “doormat” of a foreign power. 

For one wild moment you’d think she was referring to when then-President Duterte constantly described the Philippines’ historic victory over China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague as a worthless piece of paper. For the benefit of the ignorant, the arbitral court ruled that among others the nine-dash line with which China has been claiming almost the entire South China Sea is incompatible with modern international law, and that the Philippines enjoys sovereign rights over its exclusive economic zone.

Focus

The language of the Dutertes, their lawyers and supporters notwithstanding, it is important for Filipinos to understand the issue of the ex-president’s arrest and to focus on the crimes against humanity of which he is charged in relation to his war on drugs. Here are some pertinent numbers as compiled by the Inquirer: 6,252 “suspects” killed from July 1, 2016, to May 31, 2022, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency; 345,216 arrested in the same period, per PDEA; 30,000 killed, in the estimate of monitoring organizations including the human rights group Karapatan. 

We must remember the killings, the so-called “one-time, big-time” operations in August 2017, for example, when, according to reports, at least 80 people were killed in Metro Manila and Bulacan in a week. Duterte was reported quite pleased when told that 32 were killed in Bulacan in one night. “Maganda yun,” he was quoted as saying. “If we could kill 32 every day, then maybe we could reduce what ails this country.”

Necessary, too, for us to go beyond the numbers, to visualize not only the children killed (Kulot, 14; Kian, 17; etc.) but also the bereaved, including the mothers, widows and orphans, and, if possible, to imagine the pain of those largely rendered powerless and invisible by their impoverished conditions. Some of the women were recorded weeping upon learning of Duterte’s arrest. They said they had all but lost hope of finding justice. They pointed out, wistfully but correctly, that Duterte’s arrest is but an initial step, and that he is lucky to be given the due process denied their slain husbands and sons. They wished for the other respondents in the case, such as Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, now a senator seeking reelection, to be given their day in court.

In last year’s congressional hearings on extrajudicial killings that he had deigned to attend, Duterte claimed legal and moral responsibility for what happened during his war on drugs. He also contemptuously said the ICC should hurry up with its inquiry into his antidrug campaign. In Hong Kong shortly before returning to Manila, he expressed impatience at the ICC’s investigation and said he would go to the court instead of it coming for him.

In life’s twists and turns, he’s now being taken at his word.

Read more: ‘We have seen the last of Duterte,’ says Trillanes