March 12, 2025 (EIRNS)—Philippine President Bong Bong Marcos, the son of former President Ferdinand Marcos, has poisoned his father’s memory by turning the country back into a U.S. run semi-colony. The most recent atrocity is the arrest and deportation of former President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, on the basis of an ICC warrant over the people killed during Rodrigo’s war on drugs during his presidency. Duterte was arrested at the airport on an Interpol order and quickly flown off to the ICC in The Hague. The Philippines withdrew from the ICC over their investigation into the charges against Duterte in 2018. Marcos had refused to follow the ICC, but since the feud between Marcos and the Duterte family he said he would cooperate if the ICC asked Interpol to take the former president into custody.
Duterte is still very popular in the Philippines, and there is great anger over the arrest. His daughter Sara, who is now the Vice President of the Philippines, has been brought up for impeachment by Marcos cronies. Her agreement to run as Vice President with Marcos during his election in 2022 was a significant factor in Marcos winning by a large margin. Sara broke from Marcos over his subservience to the U.S. and his functioning as a front for the U.S. effort to provoke a proxy war with China. Sara said on Tuesday that her father was being “forcibly taken to The Hague tonight” and that he had been denied his legal rights. Duterte told police he should be put on trial in a court in the Philippines and not at the ICC. “If I committed a sin, prosecute me in Philippine courts,” he said in a video shared on social media by a relative.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, asked about the arrest, said: “This is an important sudden incident. China has noted the news and is closely following how this might develop. I would like to reiterate China’s consistent view that the International Criminal Court should strictly follow the principle of complementarity, exercise its functions and powers prudently in accordance with the law and prevent politicization or double standards.”
It should be recalled that the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague (not directly connected to the ICC) ruled in 2016 in favor of a motion from the Philippines to reject China’s claims in the South China Sea, a ruling that was granted despite the fact that China did not even participate in the hearing.
