The turnaround isn’t surprising. Given the gradual stripping away of the layers of invincibility around the Duterte famille, it’s actually predictable.
The current administration has said it won’t interfere with the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it comes for those responsible for the crimes against humanity during the Duterte presidency. The most natural target is Rodrigo.
The initial stumbling block was that the Uniteam was still united. The Marcos famille allied with the Duterte famille, and Vice President Sara Duterte was fresh in her post, flush power from a national mandate. The newly-elected government had to close ranks, and so the just-appointed Justice secretary was defiant vis-a-vis the ICC’s attempts to root deeper into the killings during Duterte’s drug war.
But Uniteam’s fake facade gradually crumbled, and Sara was given a chill reception, and then as relationships with the president’s wife became frosty, she was given the cold shoulder. She wasn’t given the military portfolio she liked, and in the Education department handed to her, where there would be opportunity to brainwash public school teachers and doctor textbooks that would shape future voters, she was allocated a shoestring budget.
Never mind, she still had her base in Davao, the bulwark of her family’s powers. Or so she thought, before the national government decided to play musical chairs with the local police. The old police regime in Davao was jettisoned, and new police officers with presumably clearer loyalties were sent. The writing was on the wall.
Over the week, after she escaped the typhoon that flooded Luzon so she could sing along to Taylor Swift in Germany, there was more cop drama awaiting her. Seventy-five cops formerly assigned to her personal security were pulled out from their duties, leaving her with less than 400 security personnel. That triggered an outburst, preempting any possible attacks on her family by raising the specter that they might indeed be attacked.
The drama isn’t over. Justice Secretary Remulla has flip-flopped on the ICC, first by performing a legalistic wiggle. While he initially thundered against the ICC, invoking our Constitution against its continuing interference, he’s now found a loophole. That loophole? It’s not really the ICC they’re going to cooperate with --it’s the Interpol.
The ICC has no soldiers of its own, so it relies on Interpol, which relies on local police. So, the beauty of this wiggle is that the Philippine government can and will cooperate with Interpol (even if it’s on ICC business). It’s like performing a jazzy move before sticking a landing in a difficult Simon Biles maneuver.
As Remulla said, “If we block them (Interpol), we might face repercussions. …. We are not in the business of blocking the Interpol’s job, which is to fight international crime….It’s going to be a question of Interpol’s role in this world of ours. Because our country does not exist alone. We’re part of a community”.
That means we’re part of the international community again. What were we so concerned about. We’re not going to be Venezuela, after all.
Make no mistake. The powers-that-be are slowly pulling out the teeth from the Duterte famille. The chipping away has begun. Someone must have been told to look for chinks in the Duterte armor. No, not using this term to refer to those from the mainland, although on that note, the POGO manhunts have been getting quite intense.
Over the next year or so and until the next presidential elections, the demolition job will continue. This just in from the Marcos administration: all government employees will receive a salary raise! We will be treated to more out-of-the-box strategizing from both camps. She did float the idea that three of her male relatives will run for senator, right? The Marcos juggernaut will try to steamroll over all the Duterte famille’s weapons --and the problem is, with six years of brash power flexing, not a lot of sycophants and cronies are that happy to stay in bed with them.
Given this perspective, the ICC is just another tool in the administration’s arsenal. If Sara is the most viable threat to the next presidency, well, the ICC is merely a convenient lever deployed to chop her support base. If Rodrigo is arrested together with some of his co-accused, Duterte la fille will still be scot-free --but with fewer legs to stand on.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s all wait for the ICC to come marching in first. Is it too early to book a marching band?