While the International Criminal Court (ICC) is basking in an image repair coup through the surrendered former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is subjected to global humiliation at The Hague, efforts by the US to marginalize the Tribunal may work in the Lion of Davao City’s favor.

US President Donald Trump’s relentless siege to rid the ICC of its self-righteous bluster may lead to the court’s crumbling.

Trump considers the ICC an “illegitimate” tribunal and is working to dismantle the court. The US is not a member of the hypocritical body, but it has been a target, with the arrest order on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant seen as an indirect move against US military actions.

Former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, in his opening salvo in the ICC proceedings as a member of Duterte’s legal team, cited a high-level vendetta of an alliance between those seeking to bury the Duterte legacy and a discredited court scrambling to justify its existence after years of irrelevance.

Duterte’s prosecution is a necessary circus for the ICC to flex its muscles on the world stage, particularly as its authority faces mounting challenges.

The global court, which was originally intended to prosecute war crimes, has been battered by accusations of bias and impotence, failing to convict major figures like Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir or deter atrocities in Syria.

The ICC is banking on making a showcase out of Duterte, a former head of state from an erstwhile member nation, to signal that the court can still act decisively.

The tribunal wants to set a precedent by warning other leaders that withdrawal doesn’t guarantee immunity.

Medialdea’s evidence of collusion between local groups and the ICC was the private jet, which he said cannot drop out of thin air. “That jet which received my client was coordinated in advance,” Medialdea pointed out.

Trump’s February 2025 Executive Order, imposing sanctions on ICC officials and their enablers, will expose that the court bleeds cash, its logistics are in shambles, and that it is an illegitimate body.

Duterte, going by the Trump viewpoint, will be tried by a sham body unfit to judge him.

Trump’s sanctions have put a clamp on the ICC, particularly among banks situated in the US, choking the Tribunal’s access to funds.

X, owned by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk, has recently been ablaze with posts claiming that ICC staff have not been paid and that the court’s annual budget of 206 million euros is stretched to the breaking point.

Duterte’s legal team can raise the defense that the court does not have the means to function effectively in delivering justice.

The Trump directive also placed the ICC in a logistical mess, as it relies on a fragile network of international cooperation that includes aircraft, witness support, and detention facilities upkeep.

Trump’s blacklist is a warning to contractors and allies not to deal with the Tribunal. The ICC was described as a “kangaroo court” by the firebrand US President, a view that Duterte shares.

Russia, China and India are also cheering the US move, as these nations share the view about the ICC’s irrelevance.

The collateral damage from Trump’s assault — including financial strain, logistical snags and political erosion — creates cracks in the ICC’s armor that Duterte’s legal team could pry open.

An international law veteran said Duterte’s lawyers should pound on the dysfunction, painting the court as too broken to pass fair judgment.

Trump’s offensive wasn’t aimed at Manila, but it will have a profound effect on Duterte’s case all the same.

With an estimated eight years for a final resolution, Duterte’s team has all the time to try all avenues for his release.

His legal team could petition for dismissal, arguing that the ICC’s delegitimization, as Medialdea claimed, voids its jurisdiction.

The larger-than-life figure of Duterte might just prove that the ICC and its local allies have taken on a quarry who is more than they can handle.