Realizing the yellow effort to “weaponize” human rights (in relation to the war on drugs to serve the ultimate goal of ousting President Rody Duterte) is flagging, minority senators are stepping on the gas.

The yellow bloc in the Senate composed of the members of the Liberal Party, Akbayan Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Magdalo Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, has petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) to allow a public spectacle of detained Sen. Leila de Lima arguing the plea to invalidate the government’s decision to withdraw from the Rome statue that created the International Criminal Court (ICC) inside her detention cell.

A complaint manufactured by a group led by Trillanes and submitted to the ICC by one of the senator’s wards, lawyer Jude Sabio, alleges crimes against humanity on Rody based on their slapped together 9,000 extra-judicial killings from the anti-narcotics campaign.

The complaint is not expected to prosper, but the obvious goal of Rody’s yellow foes is to squeeze propaganda mileage out of the filing of the case.

After announcing that it will conduct a “preliminary examination” of the case Sabio filed, nothing has been heard from the ICC which means nothing that the yellows can use as ammunition against Rody.

The yellow bloc has, thus, improvised and is using the SC’s oral argument set before the end of the month as a possible venue to press on with the disinformation campaign against Rody.

Sen. Paolo “Bam” Aquino has been the most innovative among the yellow lot as he went all the way to Rome for a private audience with Pope Francis just to seek his prayer for “poor Filipinos who continue to suffer amid the injustice and suffering that the country is facing under the Duterte administration.”

He even tried to mislead the Pope into believing that the alleged atrocities of Rody were widely believed in the country as he presented letters from members of the clergy, including one from “Bro. Armin Luistro of the Purple Cross Movement,” who, of course, was former President Noynoy Aquino’s Education secretary and a disciple within the inner yellow circle.

Another letter sought prayers for Filipinos affected by the administration’s “brutal war on drugs.”

The letter appealed to the Pope to pray “that the violence in the Philippines comes to an end and for the welfare of the widows and orphans left by the drug war.”

The pontiff, who apparently had an inkling of Aquino’s purpose, merely gave him a smile.

Back home, Aquino’s yellow colleagues sought De Lima’s unprecedented participation in an SC oral argument by remote in her jail cell after the tribunal turned down the senator’s appeal to get temporary release from detention to argue the petition against the ICC withdrawal.

The senators said the plea demonstrates “De Lima’s motion to personally appear during oral arguments is not a ploy to escape detention.”

“Senator De Lima is willing to argue while in detention through a live video and/or audio feed,” the motion said.

The efforts to drum up the ICC case are in response to the apparent backfiring of the smear drive against Rody who is getting support for his call for other countries to stand up against ICC and other hypocritical First World organizations which impose their high standards on developing nations.

Many have noted that the ICC has around 90 percent of its defendants as Africans and none among world powers despite the war atrocities that they sponsor.

Gambia, South Africa and Burundi have stated their intentions, in 2016, to withdraw from the ICC.

Rody is now being considered as a leader of Third World countries’ pursuit to break from the neo-colonial hold of rich nations, organizations and companies.

His war on drugs campaign is being adopted in other nations since it has eliminated what can be considered as the real rights violations in drug addiction and drug-financed terrorism.

Duterte’s rejection of the West is now considered as the torch of poor nations for self-determination.

The ICC has been considered among the First World tools in weaponizing rights against developing countries which is a fact that is getting wider focus due to Rody’s uncompromising stand against their meddling in domestic affairs.

The yellows, with their bankrupt credibility, are merely turning public perception against the tribunal in using it as a weapon against Rody.