For years, the global narrative has been saturated with relentless propaganda targeting former Asian leader and Filipino president Rodrigo Roa Duterte. He has been vilified as a monster, a tyrant, and a symbol of cruelty—portrayed as a leader despised by most of his own people. This orchestrated campaign successfully swayed the unsuspecting, idealistic voices of the Western world. The culmination of this smear campaign led to his arrest by the International Criminal Court on 11 March 2025, in collaboration with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose administration is riddled with massive corruption. The rot runs so deep that even one of Marcos’s allies, journalist and social media influencer Anthony Taberna, could no longer stay silent, exposing the truth about the massive corruption under his administration.

“Quote me here,” Taberna said. “I believe that corruption is very shameless under the administration of President Marcos Jr. Shameless. Let me tell you once again -- very shameless. If there's anyone who should act on this, it should be President Marcos Jr. President Marcos should speak out against the percentage being asked by senators and congressmen from government projects. If he doesn't speak out against it, then he is tolerating this shameless corruption. But right now, the corruption is very shameless. Very shameless. If President Marcos Jr doesn't lift a finger, it means he is tolerating it.”

The best example of this shameless corruption is House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the first cousin of President Marcos Jr. Barely three months as House Speaker, Romualdez had already been involved in a high-profile bribery case that is one of the material facts established in 26 CAPITAL et al vs. Tiger Resort Asia et al (C.A. No. 2023-0128-JTL).

This case, decided on September 7, 2023, by Vice Chancellor James Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery in the United States, concerns a broken deal involving a de-SPAC transaction related to Okada Casino. One of the key issues in this case was whether Universal Entertainment Corporation, the parent company of Okada Casino, engaged in bribery involving House Speaker Martin Romualdez—a matter infamously referred to as the "heavy luggage issue." After a five-day trial in 2023, involving testimonies from thirteen fact witnesses, four expert witnesses, and 2,281 exhibits (including deposition transcripts from twenty-nine individuals), Vice Chancellor Laster established as a material fact that House Speaker Romualdez received a "dodgy bargain" through the intercession of his associates, Michelle Lazaro and James Lorenzana.

The court’s findings state:

"It nevertheless appears that Lazaro and Lorenzana brokered a dodgy bargain in which they offered to have Romualdez intervene in return for (i) increased control over CasinoCo’s board, (ii) compensation of $35,000 per month (net of taxes), (iii) employment agreements for the local executives like Yip and Van Der Sande, and (iv) an 'item' for Romualdez."

A copy of Vice Chancellor Laster’s decision is attached for your reference. It is also publicly available on the Delaware Court of Chancery’s website.

The Marcos administration never lifted a finger. Because it's family, of course. Despite the findings of a court in the United States, Philippine Congress did NOT censure Romualdez nor subjected him to any ethics investigation.

Now, by surrendering Duterte to the ICC, Marcos Jr would like to portray himself as "leader of a democratic country that is part of the community of nations." It is clear that he is using this in order to save his family's name from international pariah status for being the greatest thieves in the world.

But disabuse your minds. Let's lay down facts....

FIRST FACT: Duterte is NOT hated by most of his people. That is absolutely FALSE.

Let’s consult the two most reputable polling companies in the Philippines: Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia.

a) SWS: These are the net satisfaction ratings of seven Philippine presidents. When Duterte finished his term, he has the highest net satisfaction rating of +81 in recent Philippine political history. The current president Marcos Jr has a net satisfaction rating of +25.

b) Pulse Asia: By March 2022, four months before he finished his term, Duterte’s approval rating was at 73%

As Filipino mainstream media reported, Duterte’s approval ratings all throughout his six-year presidency were consistently high.

Ask yourselves: Is this the trust and approval rating of a leader hated by most of his people as the West portrayed him?

The international propaganda against Duterte is pushed by the following media outfits in the Philippines funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, which DOGE head Elon Musk would like to dismantle.

SECOND FACT: His popularity stems from the fact that he delivered his promise to keep neighbourhood safe from DRUG ADDICTS AND CRIMINALS.

During Duterte's time, neighbourhood fears of Filipino people DRAMATICALLY WENT DOWN during his term. And now, under the presidency of President Marcos Jr, it steeply went up! This is what SWS Survey clearly shows.

As you can see, during Duterte's time, neighbourhood fears of Filipino people DRAMATICALLY WENT DOWN during his term. And now, under the presidency of President Marcos Jr, it steeply went up!

When Duterte was arrested, a Filipino victim of a drug addict spoke up on Facebook. In her post, she said:

"When Duterte won, that was the first time I felt safe. Criminals feared the government. The streets were safer. For once, I didn’t have to live in constant terror. So yes, I take this personally. And to those who call us enablers—you didn’t lose your family to addicts turned murderers. You don’t wake up every day reliving the horror. You don’t have to carry this rage, this grief, this pain for a lifetime. And if you ask me if I would kill? Yes, I would. I would kill if it meant my children would grow up in a world where they are safe."

Since it was posted on 11 March 2023, her post went viral immediately. As of writing this petition (March 13), it has been shared at least 212 thousand times.

In its warrant of arrest, the ICC remarks in Paragraph 26: "The Chamber observes that Mr Duterte, even though no longer the President of the Philippines, appears to continue to wield considerable power."

With that remark, ICC wants to paint a picture that Duterte powerfully controls Philippine politics right now. That is absolutely false. Vice President Sara Duterte, his own daughter, has been impeached by the House of Representatives headed by the cousin of President Marcos Jr.

If Duterte "continues to wield considerable power" as the ICC says, where exactly is that power manifesting?

The ICC is not honest. Because if it would be honest it will lose its narrative because the real power of Duterte comes from the Filipino people who were satisfied by his presidency, hence he got the highest exit rating among Philippine presidents in recent history, hence her daughter was elected Vice President in 2022 with the highest votes received in Philippine history: 32,208,417 votes with a margin of 22 million over her closest rival.

So ask yourselves, why would a victim of drug addicts in the Philippines be this adamant in standing up for Duterte? Better yet ask yourselves: Why are the stories of victims of drug addicts in the Philippines not being reported in Western media? Don't their lives and security matter to the so-called international community in rich cities in Western countries?

THIRD: Duterte wants to face the consequences of his actions.

This is patently false. What Duterte wants is to be tried by a Filipino judge, in a Filipino court, to be jailed in a Filipino prison. In other words to be judged by his own nation's own system and NOT by foreigners.

FOURTH FACT: There are no 30,000 killed under the instructions of Duterte.

This is a massive lie that is being repeated over and over again. On 12 March 2025, Reuters reported that "the ICC prosecutor has said as many as 30,000 may have been killed by police or unidentified individuals over the years."

The ICC prosecutor just cannot stop lying. In the ICC warrant of arrest against Duterte, this is the number specifically mentioned in Paragraph 14: "at least 19 persons, allegedly pushers or thieves" and "at least 24 persons, allegedly criminals - such as drug pushers and thieves - or drug users" in a time frame of 2011-2019! So it is at least 43 people in an eight-year time frame! Yet the ICC kept repeating this 30,000 nonsense despite THE FACT that it is not what is reflected in their very own warrant of arrest.

Furthermore, in Paragraph 25, the involvement of Duterte is laughably worded. He is not even tagged as a "mastermind" of the key person responsible. He is allegedly an "indirect co-conspirator." Who is the direct conspirator? Who is the mastermind? Nowhere to be found?

In addition, the warrant of arrest is sloppily written, just look at Paragraph 17 of the warrant: In the first sentence, it says Duterte founded the so-called "Lambada Boys" in 1998. Then in the next sentence, it says "in the early 1990s, the Lambada Boys were renamed Davao Death Squad." How could this possibly be? How could the Lambada Boys be renamed "Davao Death Squad" in the early 1990s when it was founded, according to ICC, in 1998? Is this a rookie mistake? An oversight? A typographical error? If you are going to jail a foreign leader, one of the most beloved in his country's history, is that an acceptable reason?

FIFTH FACT: The mainstream propaganda of killings is not the true picture of the Philippine "war on drugs" under Duterte.

Every police knows that drug syndicates will fight back when apprehended. Drug pushers in the Philippines are armed. In fact, in December 2015, months before Duterte was elected president in 2016, Vice News made this documentary about the crystal meth problem in the Philippines.

Watch the Vice News documentary and look what kind of arms these drug syndicates have. And that's just one drug syndicate operating in the Philippines! In 2015, before Duterte became president, the U.S. State Department published the 2015 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, saying "there are continued indications of the presence of Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating in the Philippines."

When Duterte launched the drug war, "more than 1.4 million Filipino drug users have surrendered for rehabilitation in the Philippine government’s war against illegal drugs" (Inquirer). Where in the world would you see this? They were alive! At least 1.4 million Filipinos were addicted! That's already an epidemic of monstrous number, yet the Western media would like to paint a Philippines that was a paradise before Duterte turned it to hell.

Again, as I pointed out in Fact #2, the true picture of the war on drugs is that the Filipino people neighbourhood fears dramatically went down during Duterte's time because drug addict roaming the streets were becoming less and less.

SIXTH FACT: The arrest of Duterte did NOT comply with the arrest proceedings of the ICC as stated in Article 59 of the Rome Statute.

The Filipino people watched the arrest unfolded before their eyes on 11 March 2025, livestreamed. After Duterte was arrested, he was sent to Villamor Airbase, a military camp, where they were waiting for a chartered plane to the Netherlands. Then the plane left.

Article 59 of the Rome Statute is clear:

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Article 59

Arrest proceedings in the custodial State

1. A State Party which has received a request for provisional arrest or for arrest and surrender shall immediately take steps to arrest the person in question in accordance with its laws and the provisions of Part 9.

2. A person arrested shall be brought promptly before the competent judicial authority in the custodial State which shall determine, in accordance with the law of that State, that: (a) The warrant applies to that person; (b) The person has been arrested in accordance with the proper process; and (c) The person’s rights have been respected

3. The person arrested shall have the right to apply to the competent authority in the custodial State for interim release pending surrender.

4. In reaching a decision on any such application, the competent authority in the custodial State shall consider whether, given the gravity of the alleged crimes, there are urgent and exceptional circumstances to justify interim release and whether necessary safeguards exist to ensure that the custodial State can fulfil its duty to surrender the person to the Court. It shall not be open to the competent authority of the custodial State to consider whether the warrant of arrest was properly issued in accordance with article 58, paragraph 1 (a) and (b).

5. The Pre-Trial Chamber shall be notified of any request for interim release and shall make recommendations to the competent authority in the custodial State. The competent authority in the custodial State shall give full consideration to such recommendations, including any recommendations on measures to prevent the escape of the person, before rendering its decision.

6. If the person is granted interim release, the Pre-Trial Chamber may request periodic reports on the status of the interim release.

7. Once ordered to be surrendered by the custodial State, the person shall be delivered to the Court as soon as possible.

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Applied to the Philippines, after arresting Duterte, he should have been brought promptly before a Philippine court which shall determine in accordance with the law of the Philippines that 1) the warrant of arrest applies to Duterte; 2) Duterte was arrested in accordance with the proper process; and 3) Duterte's rights have been respected.

The while in court, Duterte has the right to apply "for interim release pending surrender."

The Philippine government only complied with one: arrest Duterte. The rest were deliberately disregarded. And Filipinos watched all these unfold LIVESTREAMED before their eyes.

It's very clear that after arresting an ICC suspect, the suspect should be afforded Article 59 procedures which follows from arresting him/her. The Philippine government did not do this when they arrested Duterte.

The importance of Article 59 procedures has been emphasized by the ICC in Paragraph 19 of its decision regarding the second request by the Government of Libya for the Postponement of the Surrender of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi.

Article 59 of the Rome Statute does not make compliance conditional on the severity of the charges. It applies equally in all cases where a person is arrested based on an ICC request. Article 59 apply to all suspects regardless of the severity of the alleged crime. The custodial state must comply with procedural safeguards in every case, even if the person is accused of genocide, war crimes, or less severe crimes under ICC jurisdiction. The right to judicial review and the right to request interim release are fundamental due process rights that cannot be ignored based on the nature of the charges. If a custodial state fails to comply with Article 59, it is a procedural violation, and the ICC cannot excuse it by saying the charge is severe. The ICC is a court of law, and fair procedure must be followed for all cases.

The Philippine government is trying to wiggle their way out of this Article 59 situation by issuing statements that are not only absurd but patently wrong, exposing that they deliberately did not afford Duterte Article 59 procedures.

On 12 March 2025, the Press Undersecretary of President Marcos said that it is the Dutch local court that would determine whether the arrest was proper. This is INCORRECT. Once the suspect is transferred to the ICC, Dutch national courts do not handle their detention or interim release. The Netherlands is only hosting the ICC detention facility. Dutch courts has NO authority in executing Article 59 when the suspect is not arrested in the Netherlands.

The absurdity continued the following day, 13 March 2025. Mico Clavano, the spokesperson of the Department of Justice claimed, that their department was the "competent judicial authority" that attested the the "proper process" was conducted in arresting Durterte.

This is incorrect. The Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ) is just like the Department of Justice in the United States. It is under the Executive Department. As the Philippine Supreme Court decided in De Lima et al vs Reyes (11 January 2016): "The fact that the DOJ is the primary prosecution arm of the Government does not make it a quasi-judicial office or agency. Its preliminary investigation of cases is not a quasi-judicial proceeding. Nor does the DOJ exercise a quasi-judicial function when it reviews the findings of a public prosecutor on the finding of probable cause in any case."

Furthermore, according to the Constitution of the Philippines, judicial power belongs to the judiciary and not to any executive department. Article 59 of the Rome Statute offers suspects rights that are "legally demandable and enforceable" which has to be settled by the judicial department of the Philippines, as mandated by the Philippine Constitution. It is not the the DOJ or any departments under the EXECUTIVE that has that power.

Thus, even before Duterte is put on trial proper, the proceedings are already starting from an illegitimate process. The ICC might bend Article 59 violations of the Philippine government but doing so would mean going against its own rules and thus would seriously undermine its already dwindling legitimacy.

SEVENTH FACT: There is NO ICC unanimity about the jurisdiction of the ICC over the Philippines.

Two of the five judges dissented on the jurisdiction of the ICC over the Philippines. Paragraph 26 of the Dissenting opinion of Judge Perrin de Brichambaut and Judge Lordkipanidze is instructive:

In our view, the wording of article 12(2) indicates that the appropriate time to make a determination as to whether the preconditions of article 12 of the Statute are met is when the exercise of the Court’s jurisdiction is triggered, not when the crimes were allegedly committed. In other words, the preconditions to the exercise of the Court’s jurisdiction must exist at the time that the jurisdiction is triggered pursuant to article 13 of the Statute, which, in the scenario provided for in article 13(c) of the Statute, in our view, definitely occurs when the pre-trial chamber authorizes the commencement of the investigation, pursuant to article 15(4) of the Statute.

Thus, the ICC is already venturing on grave overreach, undermining the sovereignty of a country, a country they don't know, whose language they don't speak, whose history they haven't lived, whose reality they will never truly understand because they live in a world so different from it.

CONCLUSION

There are still a lot of facts that the world should know. But those who would like to speak them are deliberately excluded by Western media from having a platform. Western media is only promoting views that are aligned with their narrative of the Philippines. This is a systematic control of another country's history by foreigners for the purpose of massaging their ego's they claim to be serving their self-imposed version of "humanity." But as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon once said: Whoever invokes humanity wants to cheat.

There is a clear collusion here: Between the corrupt Marcos government and the ICC, whose existential legitimacy is suffering tremendously - from its prosecutor currently facing sexual harassment cases to its battle with the Trump administration.

No doubt, the ICC in enjoying the good press it's getting from its cheerleaders.

Reuters says it well: Arrest of Philippines' Duterte offers a glimmer of hope at troubled ICC

BBC has an equally triumphant tone: Duterte's first night in ICC custody is a pivotal moment for the court.

Washington Post chimes in: Duterte’s ICC arrest is a victory for a faltering rules-based order

This exotic fascination is reminiscent of the time Filipinos were exhibited in a "human zoo" during colonial times.

But who are these foreigners compared to how Filipino National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose who understood the role of Duterte in Philippine history? When Duterte was elected, he said: "The first thing [non-supporters of Duterte] should do is to recognize that a revolution has started; and the second thing they should do is to recognize that that revolution is long in coming and that it is a necessity.”

Watch this for the rest of what Sionil said with a long-view of Philippine history and Duterte's role in it.

Now, since ICC trials last long, and Duterte is now 80 years old, there's a huge chance that this Philippine leader will not die in his own land but in a foreign land. The gravity of this prospect is totally lost in the minds of ICC officials who think nothing but preserving their job, the longevity of their dwindling institution, and the good press they would be getting from this drama whose badly written script they already wrote a long time ago.

The ICC's legitimacy is on borrowed time, destined to crumble under the weight of its own internal contradictions. But let this be clear: the legacy of Rodrigo Duterte in the history of the Philippines will not be dictated by foreign judges in The Hague, far removed from the harsh realities faced by Filipinos. It will not be shaped by those who have never endured the daily terror inflicted by drug addicts and criminals on Philippine streets.

Duterte's legacy will be written by the lived experiences of ordinary Filipinos—by the families who finally found relative peace in their neighborhoods during the time of Duterte's presidency, by the communities that dared to hope for a future free from the grip of oligarchy, and by the people who saw in his presidency a bold challenge to the entrenched powers that have long held the nation back. His story will be told not in courtrooms abroad, but in the hearts of those who believed in his fight for a safer, more just Philippines.

And lastly, Filipinos will tell future generations of Filipinos this...Foreigners jailed their beloved president in a foreign land for allegedly be an "indirect co-conspirator" for allegedly killing at least 19 thieves and drug pushers and at least 24 alleged criminals. Meanwhile, the same foreigners refused to prosecute former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of the masterminds behind the illegal invasion of a foreign country - Iraq - that killed at least 300,000 citizens that are neither thieves, drug pushers, criminals, not a threat to the daily lives of the British people.