Self-preservation operation

The global spectacle of the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte provided the International Criminal Court (ICC), largely discredited for its selective pursuit of small nations, a timely boost as it deals with US sanctions and an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by its chief prosecutor.

The ICC has long taken on the garb of global justice, purporting to hold the powerful to account in nations with a deficient judicial system.

Yet, its recent actions, including its meddling in the Philippines, expose a hypocrisy that demands a reckoning.

Sanctions against the self-aggrandizing body, as the United States has initiated, are overdue.

The ICC’s intrusions into small nations with a fully functioning judiciary is nothing but a power grab dressed up as moral superiority.

Under its legal framework, the Philippines has a robust judiciary capable of addressing its internal affairs.

Such was the message of Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra in seeking a recusal from representing the government in the writ of habeas corpus petition filed by Duterte’s children before the Supreme Court.

Guevarra maintained that he can’t go against the position the country consistently held in its communications with the ICC — that the Tribunal does not have jurisdiction over the country following its withdrawal from the Rome Statute effective 2019.

The country has a Supreme Court, a law-enforcing mechanism in the Philippine National Police, and a lattice of courts and prosecutors, which, while imperfect, is far from providing the ICC an excuse to meddle.

When the ICC pushed to investigate the anti-drug campaign, specifically targeting former President Rodrigo Duterte, the implication was that the local system was not capable of rendering justice.

This wasn’t a case of a failed state begging for an international body to step in.

A functioning democracy was being told that its courts weren’t good enough by a distant tribunal with a questionable track record.

The ICC’s principle of complementarity — under which the Tribunal can only intervene when national institutions can’t or won’t act — has been twisted by the tribunal’s recent complicity with those wanting Duterte erased from the political equation.

The Philippines has investigated allegations tied to the drug war. Cases have been filed, probes launched and judicial mechanisms engaged.

Compare the swift manner by which it swooped down on Duterte to its limp-wristed response to atrocities committed by Western powers in various conflict areas.

US sanctions will hit the hypocrisy where it hurts. Freezing of the assets of ICC officials, barring them from traveling to the United States, and choking their funding are expected to hit the tribunal hard.

The US, in 2020, targeted ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda for the attempt to probe American actions in Afghanistan. The Philippines should exercise the same resolve.

An international law veteran asked why a nation with a working judiciary should bend to an unaccountable body that’s dodged scrutiny of its own failures, like targeting mainly small African nations.

Justice can’t be served by a court that cherry picks its battles and undermines sovereign systems.

The Philippines is a nation wrestling with challenges under its laws. The ICC’s intrusion culminated in Duterte’s 2025 appearance via video link in The Hague that smacked of theatrics, not accountability.

The ICC, with its sanctimonious posturing and inconsistent policies, might just fold under the weight of the US sanctions, as its efforts are all aimed at self preservation.