Duterte’s arrest and ICC trial a significant victory for the Filipino people

Published: 21 March 2025 21 March 2025

Vol. VI, No. 5 - March 15, 2025

The arrest and trial of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte  in the International Criminal Court is a significant victory for the Filipino people who have long clamored for justice and retribution for the tyrant’s countless crimes during his six-year reign of terror as president, and more as mayor of Davao City.

Despite his arrest, the struggle for justice continues. The Filipino people continues to demand the conviction and punishment of Duterte and his principal military and police cohorts. They continue to pursue their quest for justice for the thousands of victims of unjust killings committed by military, police and vigilantes under the guise of the so-called war on drugs and the brutal and bloody political crackdown unleashed by Duterte’s regime.

The arrest of Duterte was long delayed because Marcos, who allied himself with the Dutertes in the 2022 elections, had publicly opposed cooperation with the ICC. The Marcos-Duterte “Uniteam” alliance, however, began to fracture in mid-2023. This Marcos-Duterte conflict heightened further as Marcos pushes to consolidate and monopolize political power, with the start of mid-term elections and the impeachment of Sara Duterte last February 5, 2025.

The cooperation of the Marcos administration with the Interpol to effect Duterte’s arrest is also a testament to Marcos’ political opportunism, making it serve his strategic aim to undermine the Dutertes and their scheme to return to power in 2028. Nonetheless, this does not negate the fact that the arrest of Duterte is a major outcome of the continuing demand of the people to hold Duterte to account for his crimes.

Under Marcos, the same repressive policies of Duterte and attacks against the revolutionary movement continue. Extrajudicial killings, abductions and enforced disappearances, as well as aerial bombing and strafing, especially in thousands of villages which Marcos ordered to be placed under military rule, remain rampant. Many of these crimes have been documented during the hearings by the International People’s Tribunal held in Brussels in May 2024. Since then, several scores of new cases of extrajudicial killings of civilians have been recorded.

The arrest of Duterte emboldens the Filipino people to pursue their struggle for justice and human rights. Amid the continuing bloody crimes perpetrated by state forces, the Filipino people are ever more determined to hold Marcos, like Duterte, accountable for the grave crimes that continue to be committed with impunity by military and police forces behind the veil of the Marcos policy of “counterinsurgency” and “national security.”

With Duterte now set to be tried by the ICC, a new frontier of struggle emerges for the Filipino people. Calls to rejoin the International Criminal Court have been put forward and are being amplified, as it serves as an important recourse for the Filipino people to hold accountable all past and future tyrants and their accomplices.

The ultimate recourse for the Filipino people, however, remains to wage revolutionary struggle to overthrow the tyranny of big bourgeois compradors, big landlords and bureaucrat capitalists. Only by putting an end to the fascist state that employs terrorist violence to perpetuate the oppressive and exploitative semicolonial and semifeudal system, can their aspiration for genuine freedom and social justice be fully realized.

 

 

 

 

 

US dumping Ukraine is a warning to the Philippine puppet state

Published: 08 March 2025 08 March 2025

Vol. VII, No. 4 - February 28, 2025

US president Donald Trump’s blatant dumping of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during their meeting at the White House on February 28 should serve as a warning to US lapdog Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on what US imperialism would do to its puppet states – used when convenient, abandoned when no longer needed.

Read more: US dumping Ukraine is a warning to the Philippine puppet state

Impeachment of Sara Duterte emboldens Filipino people to hold Marcos Jr. accountable

Published: 20 February 2025 20 February 2025

Vol. VII, No. 03 - February 15, 2025

The Philippine ruling classes are undergoing acute crisis. This is manifest in the increasingly antagonistic split between the top national political dynasties in the ruling coalition -- the Marcoses and the Dutertes. This instability is a cause for worry for US imperialism because the country is in the front line of its first island chain strategy of warmongering against China.

Read more: Impeachment of Sara Duterte emboldens Filipino people to hold Marcos Jr. accountable

Hold the Dutertes accountable, resist the US-Marcos regime!

Published: 08 February 2025 08 February 2025

Vol. VII, No. 2 - January 31, 2025

Last February 5, a total of 215 lawmakers in the Philippine House of Representatives signed an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte. While congress ultimately voted to remove Duterte from office, it is worth noting that Marcos Jr. carefully stalled and navigated the impeachment proceedings, ensuring that his administration had secured the military’s loyalty and defused tensions to avoid alarming foreign investors, all under the watchful eye of his US imperialist backers. In the end however, it was not Marcos Jr.’s political calculus but the sheer force of the people’s outrage that made Duterte’s impeachment inevitable.

Read more: Hold the Dutertes accountable, resist the US-Marcos regime!