The ICC and the Philippines' anti-illegal drug campaign

THE road to Malacañang was paved for the first and only Mindanaoan candidate to become president of the Philippines by riding through a campaign promise to rid the government of corrupt officials and cleanse the country of criminals. More than 16 million voters catapulted Rodrigo Duterte to power, the tough-talking and straight-shooting mayor of Davao City who swore to eliminate the country's nagging illegal drugs problem in six months. This vast majority of Filipinos believed that if he was able to vanquish criminals and drug addicts in Davao, he could do the same in the entire country if he became president.

More than six months after President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (PRRD) took his oath, the drug menace was still there. The Chief Executive admitted that he failed because he did not realize how deep and widespread the drug problem was, that it even involved narco-police generals — not until he became president. But he firmly committed that he would vigorously pursue his drug campaign until the last day of his presidency. Well, he may have failed to completely obliterate the use and trading of illegal drugs, but true to his word, there was no let-up in his crusade against illegal drugs until the end of his term in June 2022. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency reported 6,235 drug suspects killed as of February 2022, but human rights groups estimate that the number could be four times more than that which triggered the United Nations through the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Duterte's "bloody war on illegal drugs."

The initial move for an inquiry by the ICC was met with utmost vehemence from the Duterte administration. After ratifying the Rome Statute on Aug. 30, 2011 that came into force in November of the same year, the Philippines withdrew its membership in the court in March 2018. Since then, PRRD has invoked the legality of its actions as the government's obligation to defend its citizens, especially the youth, from illegal drugs which are the root cause of nearly all heinous crimes in the country.

Responsibility to Protect (R2P)