Hosting an ICC fugitive

Sometime this November, Russian President Vladimir Putin may be walking down a red carpet in Manila after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. personally invited him to the East Asia Summit (EAS) as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) guest of honor.

But Putin’s visit might cause complications for Marcos.

Putin has been the subject of an outstanding International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant since March 2023, accused of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children. If he comes, the Philippines will be treating a wanted man to state honors.

Russia signed the Rome Statute in 2000 but never ratified it to become a member of the ICC, and in 2016, it finally withdrew its signature.

Compare the imminent royal treatment of Putin to that of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who has been hiding from his own government since May after the ICC unsealed a warrant accusing him of murder as a crime against humanity for his alleged role in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) calls Dela Rosa a fugitive. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have orders to find him.

An Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order keeps Dela Rosa from leaving the country, and NBI agents already tried to arrest him once inside the Senate but failed. Officials insist it isn’t a manhunt, but it sure looks like one.

The administration will say there is no contradiction, and it has a point. Dela Rosa is a private citizen with no immunity left to spend, while Putin is a sitting head of state, and head-of-state immunity applies.

Nobody seriously expects Marcos to clap his guest in irons at the EAS, but Putin may well watch his back given Malacañang’s ambiguity on the ICC.

Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida issued a statement clearly stating that Dela Rosa is a fugitive who should be delivered to The Hague. That’s the same argument Marcos made in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest last year.

“Interpol asked for help, and we obliged because we have commitments which we have to fulfill,” was Marcos’ explanation.

It was later found out that the document used to arrest Duterte was merely an International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) diffusion, not a red notice, which, strictly speaking, was not a legal obligation requiring his surrender.

The repurposing of the Interpol document showed that it was exploited for political use in response to the many questions about whether Duterte’s surrender had been proper.

This should tell Putin that the Philippines does not operate under a fixed rule when ICC cooperation is required. It flips a switch depending on who is standing in front of it.

Cooperation was obligatory when the target was an estranged former president. It is obligatory again when the target is a senator. It will very likely not be obligatory when the target is the head of a world power who controls a third of the world’s gas exports and whose hand Marcos personally shook in Kazan.

It need not take Putin’s arrest in Manila to expose the double standard. Marcos’ henchmen in the NBI and other enforcement agencies, nonetheless, need to watch their words when the Russian president visits.

If “fugitive” and “should face justice” still describe Dela Rosa in November, while “sovereign equality” and “diplomatic protocol” describe Putin, it would be easy to imagine the ammunition that would be handed to the Duterte alliance.

A selective engagement with the ICC would hover above the Palace if Putin’s November visit pushes through.