The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last March 11 is a victory of the Filipino people in their fight for justice, especially for the victims of his bloody “war on drugs.” This development is a direct result of the relentless struggle waged by the fighting Filipino masses, fearless human rights defenders, and the families of victims who refused to be silenced amid the widespread disinformation and repression targeting them. His arrest affirms that even the most ruthless despots can be held to account when confronted by the organized rage and clamor of the masses.
But at the same time, Duterte’s arrest also lays bare the political opportunism of Marcos Jr. whose cooperation with the ICC is not rooted in any genuine desire for justice for victims of extrajudicial killings under Duterte’s term, but instead in his desire to crush his biggest political rival ahead of the 2028 elections. Just as he seeks to erase the crimes of his father’s fascist dictatorship from 1972 to 1986, Marcos Jr. remains deaf to the demands of the Filipino people to address widespread joblessness, poverty, and landlessness in the countryside. Further, the Marcos Jr. administration continues to uphold the repressive policies of Duterte, including the widespread fascist attacks on communities, the continued operations of the NTF-Elcac, the relentless use of the so-called terror laws to suppress dissent as well as extrajudicial killings that continue to target NDFP consultants and revolutionaries.
Duterte’s arrest follows the impeachment case filed against Sara Duterte in the reactionary senate last February 5 – further evidence that Marcos Jr. is using the full force of the reactionary state machinery to dismantle the Duterte faction and tighten the Marcoses’ grip on power. However, it must be emphasized that Duterte’s arrest should not be a matter of political rivalry, but a matter of justice. It is now up to the mass movement to ensure that Duterte’s arrest is not co-opted by Marcos Jr. to cover up his own crimes or to distract from the fact that the same fascist policies remain in place under his rule.
On the other hand, the Duterte camp has mobilized a well-oiled disinformation and fake news machinery to frame him as a “victim” of foreign intervention, portraying him as a frail old man unjustly “kidnapped” and prosecuted beyond the ICC’s jurisdiction. This same machinery is being used to attack advocates and, most insidiously, to vilify the families of his drug war victims. This deliberate campaign of misinformation aims to discredit those demanding accountability and to distort the public narrative to Duterte’s favor. These lies must be countered by an intensified mass education and propaganda campaign to ensure that Duterte is remembered for the mass murderer that he truly is.
Duterte’s crimes extend far beyond the merits of the ICC case. In fact, Duterte committed war crimes by targeting civilian communities where thousands of peasants, national minorities, and activists were subjected to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and forced evacuations. Duterte weaponized red-tagging to justify attacks on progressive organizations, church workers, humanitarian groups, journalists, lawyers and anyone critical of his regime. These crimes must not be forgotten, much the same way that the Filipino people must not forget Marcos Jr.’s ongoing crimes against them.
The rivalry between Marcos and Duterte must be seen as the sharpening of contradictions within the ruling class. It is therefore the duty of the revolutionary mass movement to prevent Duterte’s arrest from being used to whitewash Marcos Jr.’s own crimes or legitimize the illusion that justice can be found under the current semifeudal and semicolonial system.
Duterte and Marcos Jr. are no different. The suffering of the Filipino people continues under the current regime. Nothing has changed in terms of skyrocketing commodity prices, widespread unemployment, and the decline of livelihood opportunities. The massive importation of rice and other agricultural products continue to flood the local market to the detriment of local producers while majority of the peasant class remain landless. Marcos Jr., like Duterte, has done nothing to address these fundamental economic issues, as both tyrants serve the interests of the ruling classes and their imperialist masters. Moreover, both regimes have dragged the Philippines into the intensifying rivalry between the US and China. Under Marcos Jr., US control has grown ever more pronounced, increasing the threat of war as the reactionary state continues to provoke an armed response from Beijing. US arms and equipment continue to pour into the Armed Forces of the Philippines, fueling its counterrevolutionary war against the Filipino people.
Duterte’s arrest opens a window – not for bourgeois justice, but for revolutionary action. It ignites the possibility that the people, organized and armed, can rise against the entire system that gave rise to such tyrants in the first place. The same rage that mobilized the people to bring Duterte to jail and to impeach Sara Duterte must now also be channeled toward holding Marcos Jr. accountable for his own crimes against the Filipino people. Genuine change can only be achieved through revolutionary struggle. The worsening economic crises, along with the political upheavals caused by the intensifying rivalries among the ruling classes, create the most favorable conditions for the advance of the armed revolution. Only through the victory of the people’s war can genuine justice be served for all victims of oppression and exploitation, and the long-sought aspiration for national liberation, democracy, and socialism be achieved.
