ASEANEWS-DU30 EJK | MANILA: Posts falsely claim ICC judge ‘shelved’ probe into Duterte’s drug war
As the rift between the families of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and former president Rodrigo Duterte deepened, social media posts falsely claimed the archipelago nation’s leader had appealed to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to jail his predecessor. The posts shared footage from 2023 of an ICC judge announcing the court had rejected an appeal by Marcos to halt its investigation into Duterte’s deadly drug war.
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“The ICC rejected the plea to jail Duterte, what now for the loyalists,” read part of the Tagalog-language text overlay to a TikTok video, using the popular term for supporters of the Marcos family.
The text below the clip shared on October 21 read: “The ICC junks the appeal of the Marcos govt.”
The current and former presidents have had a very public falling out this year. Nonetheless, Marcos has stressed that his government will not cooperate with the ICC investigation into Duterte’s drug war.
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Memento Maxima Digital MarketingHowever, he and his aides also said they would not stand in the way if the ICC asked Interpol to arrest Duterte or if Duterte wanted to surrender to the ICC.
The post circulated as Duterte strongly defended his drug war before a legislative inquiry conducted by the Southeast Asian country’s senators (archived link).
Police said the campaign left more than 6,000 people dead, but rights groups estimate tens of thousands of mostly poor men were killed by officers and vigilantes, often without proof they were linked to illegal drugs.
The video was shared elsewhere on TikTok and Facebook here and here.
Comments on the posts indicated some users appeared to wrongly believe Marcos had urged the ICC to jail his predecessor.
“ICC rejects the appeal of the Marcos government to punish Duterte. Marcos admin failed,” one said.
“Thank you GOD FOR PROTECTING FPRRD,” another said, using an acronym for Duterte.
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ICC probe
The original video was published on YouTube by Philippine news site Rappler on July 18, 2023 alongside the title “ICC junks PH gov’t appeal, probe into killings under Duterte continues” (archived link).
It shows former ICC judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut reading out part of the tribunal’s decision which rejected the Philippine government’s plea for the court to halt its investigation into the drug war (archived links here and here).
The clip came from a longer video of the ruling published on the ICC’s YouTube channel on July 18, 2023, in which Judge Perrin de Brichambaut gave the court’s judgement from the seven-minute 30-second mark (archived link)
“Before I address the merits of the appeal, I would like to state that it is rejected by the appeal chamber by majority, and the important decision is therefore confirmed,” he said.
The footage in the false posts corresponds with the judge’s comments at the 23-minute 25-second mark, in which he said: “The majority rejects the fourth ground of appeal in its entirety”.
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Case history
The Philippines quit the ICC in 2019 on Duterte’s instructions, but the tribunal has said it had jurisdiction over killings before the pullout, as well as killings in the southern city of Davao when Duterte was mayor there, years before he became president.
The court announced in 2021 that it would authorise a full investigation into the former president’s brutal anti-narcotics campaign (archived here).
In 2022, Duterte’s government asked the ICC to defer its probe, saying it was investigating and prosecuting suspects in its own courts (archived link).
The tribunal temporarily suspended its investigation but formally resumed it in January 2023.
Shortly afterwards, the Marcos government filed an appeal against resuming the probe, which the ICC dismissed (archived link).
Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN has also debunked the claim shared in misleading social media posts.
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