From Ang Bayan: With Duterte In Jail, Intensify The Struggle Against The US-Marcos Regime

Ang Bayan | March 21, 2025

The Filipino people seeking justice enthusiastically welcomed the arrest and detention of former chief tyrant Rodrigo Duterte at the facilities of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands on March 11. This is a major victory, not only for the victims of the widespread killings ordered by Duterte under the guise of the “war on drugs,” but for all victims of fascist attacks under his terrorist regime.

This opens up the possibility of holding Duterte accountable and punishing him for his crimes against humanity, something that is almost impossible under the corrupt ruling political and justice system in the Philippines.

Eight years have passed since the case was initiated at the ICC. It was further delayed by the Marcos regime’s refusal to cooperate with the ICC since 2022 due to Marcos’ alliance with the Dutertes. Only now that this alliance has completely fallen apart, did Marcos agree to allow the ICC to proceed (including the ousting of Sara Duterte) in his efforts to consolidate his power and remove major obstacles to his plan to extend his rule beyond 2028.

In truth, Marcos remains deaf to the people’s cry to hold Duterte accountable for his crimes, just as he is deaf to the cries for justice for all human rights violations during his father’s dictatorial rule. The fascist policies of the Duterte regime are the same being implemented by Marcos Jr today to carry out the widespread suppression of the people waging resistance.

The Dutertes are now funding a systematic and widespread campaign of disinformation and fake news on social media. To gain public sympathy, the Duterte camp is now portraying the former fascist tyrant as “pitiful” and “a victim” of political persecution, and that his arrest is against the law and the country’s sovereignty. This is being claimed not so much as an argument in the ICC, but to stir up the emotions of Duterte’s supporters and to drum up rallies.

They are covering up tens of thousand of skeletons of the victims of killings during Duterte’s brutal reign. Even victims and their families are being subjected to intimidation and threats. They are obscuring the fact that Duterte used his power under the guise of the “war on drugs” to control the drug supply and become the lord of all drug lords in the Philippines. They are erasing from the people’s memory the sufferings and hardships under Duterte’s anti-worker, anti-peasant, anti-poor, and anti-national policies, along with the massive corruption and wealth accumulation of his family and cronies.

The fight of the victims and the Filipino people in the ICC is far from over. It will still go through many twists and turns. It is necessary to encourage and help the thousands of other victims and witnesses to speak out and testify to strengthen the case in the ICC and the call to punish Duterte and all his co-perpetrators for their crimes.

The trial of Duterte in the ICC has opened a new field of struggle for accountability against wicked dictators, tyrants, and iron-clad fascists, who are almost impossible to punish under the Philippine reactionary courts. It is necessary to support and strengthen the call for the Philippines to rejoin the ICC and to push the Marcos regime to do so. In the face of the unequal application of the law under the Philippine puppet state, rejoining the ICC favors the search for justice for thousands of victims of fascist suppression and state terrorism. At the same time, preparations should be made to file cases in the ICC against Marcos, officers of the AFP and PNP, and commanders of divisions and battalions, who perpetrate crimes against humanity and war crimes.

At the same time, widespread propaganda and education should continue to be conducted to push for accountability against Duterte and to demand justice from Marcos for fascist suppression, people’s suffering, corruption, and subservience to foreign imperialist interests. “Marcos-Duterte, walang pinag-iba” (“Marcos, Duterte are all the same”) in terms of heinous crimes of extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture, imprisonment, and fabrication of cases and evidence, against the struggling people. The fight against Marcos and officers of the military and police who continue to perpetrate fascist violence and intimidation against the people should be strengthened.

“Marcos-Duterte, walang pinag-iba” in terms of inflicting suffering on the Filipino people. Nothing has changed in rising commodity prices, widespread unemployment, and the decline of the livelihood of the majority of the people. Nothing has changed in the policies that oppress the people, such as freezing workers’ wages, the massive importation of rice and other agricultural products to the detriment of local production, and favoring of foreign capitalist plunderers who destroy the country’s wealth and environment. Nothing has changed in the unbridled borrowing, corruption in government contracts, smuggling, and coddling of cartels and criminal syndicates.

“Marcos-Duterte, walang pinag-iba” in dragging the country into the conflict between the US and China. Under Marcos, US military forces are exercising greater dominance in the Philippines, and the threat of the country being drawn into an imperialist war is increasing, along with the growing role of the US in supplying arms and equipment to the AFP for use in the war of suppression against the people.

In the end, genuine change that the people desire can only be achieved through revolutionary transformation in the Philippines. The Filipino people who are oppressed by imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism continue to stand up and resist. The rotten reactionary neo-colonial state of the big bourgeois compradors, big landlords, and bureaucratic capitalists must be overthrown.

To achieve the aspiration for justice and true freedom, the Filipino people must fully support, advance, and intensify the armed struggle being waged by the New People’s Army. Only through the victory of the people’s war can justice be given to all victims of oppression and exploitation, and the desired national liberation, democracy, and socialist future be achieved.

Source : https://philippinerevolution.nu/2025/03/21/with-duterte-in-jail-intensify-the-struggle-against-the-us-marcos-regime/