MANILA, Philippines – Visibly tired and, perhaps, just a little bit weary from what had been a long day for many Filipinos, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. addressed the Filipino nation in a briefing at the Palace past 11 pm on Tuesday, March 11. 

Many expected a firm, unequivocal address from Marcos that night. 

After all, at 11:03 pm that night, a chartered jet on lease by the Office of the President had left Manila for The Hague, with a long stopover in Dubai. Inside was Rodrigo Duterte, once the most powerful man in the Philippines, who has to face a tribunal he’d repeatedly taunted and ridiculed before: the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

Yet, in Malacañang that night, what we saw was a leader who, after marking the biggest political decision in his presidency, seemed unsure. Unconvinced, even.

“The plane is en route to The Hague in the Netherlands allowing the former president to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs,” said Marcos, flanked by his newly-appointed communications chief Jay Ruiz and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla. 

The mood was somber, if not tense — punctuated only by Marcos’ awkward chuckles during the few minutes of Q&A with his newly-appointed communications chief Jay Ruiz. 

“It’s a request to the Philippine government from Interpol to enforce the arrest warrant. And of course, we comply with our commitments to Interpol. It is — we did not do this because it was — it derived from or it came from ICC. We did this because Interpol asked us to do it and we have commitments to them and we live up to those commitments,” said Marcos, in response to a question from Ruiz about a copy of the ICC warrant. 

Marcos also denied that electoral politics was in the mix. After all, his political-ally-turned-enemy, Vice President Sara Duterte, is seen to be a contender in the 2028 presidential election. 

It was only towards the end of the quick media engagement that Marcos seemed to regain his bearings. Asked about protests that were ongoing — and with many more expected to come, the President said: “The government is just doing its job…. it’s not because it’s one person or another that we do the things that we do. Maybe, in past administrations, that’s what they do. But for me, that isn’t it.”   

Marcos, who has fashioned himself a stalwart of the international rules based order and of international law, added: “We are a member of the community of nations. We must live up to our responsibilities to the commitments that we have made to the community of nations.” 

We’re told that Marcos was not exactly enthusiastic in planning for, and then executing, the service of the warrant against his predecessor.

Only a tight circle of top officials met the whole day on March 10 to plan for eventualities. The warrant itself only reached the desk of Philippine law enforcement (the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime and the national police) at 3 in the morning on March 11, or just hours before Duterte checked into a morning Cathay Pacific flight to Manila. 

The morning of the 11th, Marcos met with key Cabinet members, including his National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, who once served under Duterte. 

And then history was made. Duterte is the first former Philippine head of state to face the ICC after years of long, painstaking, and often dangerous efforts by the families of those slain in the drug war, their lawyers, and their advocates to document and retell their stories. 

Marcos made no mention of justice or accountability, although Malacañang’s newly-installed firecracker of a press officer Undersecretary Clarissa Castro would soon turn into a champion not only for the administration’s decision, but the cause of over 27,000 killed in the bloody drug war. 

Storm in a teacup no more

President Marcos’ lack of enthusiasm is understandable. After all, Vice President Duterte enjoys practically the same trust and approval ratings as he does. Former president Duterte, despite cutting down on public appearances since stepping down in 2022, remains a popular figure and is still apparently a strong 2025 midterm elections endorser.

Consider also the other factors that must have crossed Marcos’ mind — the impending impeachment trial of Vice Presidential Duterte, and the votes in the Senate that his allies must secure to get a conviction. 

That these things are happening at the midway point of the 2025 national campaign period also makes decisiveness crucial, if not existential. 

There are allies and affiliates, especially at the local level, who are still trying to appease both the Marcos and Duterte camps and their supporters. Senator Imee Marcos, the President’s older sister, used to be a fence sitter — although she’s since made explicitly known where she stands in the Marcos-Duterte fight.

By shipping Rodrigo Duterte off to The Hague, any pretense of being for both or neither, or both and neither and the same time, goes out the window, especially in Duterte bailiwicks like Mindanao and parts of Visayas.  

PH’s outsized role

That Marcos is mindful of the Philippines’ international reputation is not surprising, either. 

In speeches before foreign legislators and major security conferences, Marcos has made it a point to emphasize the Philippines’ outsized role in upholding the rules-based order in a region on the precipice of chaos; the power that smaller, middle nations have if they band together in upholding shared interests; and the importance of diplomacy and multilateralism. 

Jonvic Remulla, longtime governor of vote-rich Cavite who is now Marcos’ interior chief, explained it this way: “Because the last six years prior to 2022, we had damaged our relations with the international community” 

“And until today we are repairing it. This is one of the important steps in order to regain our credibility,” he said, referring to the arrest of Duterte. 

We’ve heard this refrain before. Marcos’ world tour in 2022 and up to 2023 were meant not only to introduce himself to an international community, since that their clan was no longer pariah, but also to tell the world that things were different now that the anti-West Duterte was no longer in power. 

This was important for Marcos and his administration, especially when it decided in 2023 that it would prioritize defending the Philippines’ sovereign rights and sovereignty claims in the West Philippine Sea. The ties forged under Marcos are coming in handy as Manila tries to win a non-permanent UN Security Council seat. 

In a world where “ironclad” commitments from longtime treaty-ally the United States could turn rusty, it does the Philippines well to maintain its image as a rule-abiding member of the international community.  

There is a deep irony in Marcos Jr. being the unlikely champion of tens of thousands of victims of Duterte’s drug war. His clan has yet to truly atone for or even acknowledge the suffering of thousands under his father, the late dictator. But that’s a topic to unpack for another day. 

And yet even as Marcos puts the spotlight on international commitments and international credibility in defending his decision to send Duterte to the ICC, he’ll have to deal with the domestic backlash from people — self-styled die-hards included — who’ve never had to truly understand what accountability means. – Rappler.com