In Duterte’s Philippines, death squads and cyber trolls are public policy with funding straight from the people’s pockets.

Amid an unprecedented health and economic crisis, fascism takes priority over the people’s welfare. As the 2022 elections are closing in, the administration is not subtle about showing its fangs, desperate to preserve its reign of terror.

Last May, Sweden-based digital security provider Qurium Media Foundation traced denial of service (DDoS) attacks of altermedia websites Bulatlat and Altermidya to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the military. No matter if mainstream or alternative, critical media has been consistently attacked by this regime through various state machineries. Digital evidence confirms that government funds are being mobilized for such suppression of basic constitutional rights.

Moreover, Duterte recently announced that he is encouraging anti-crime volunteers to arm themselves to do a “citizen’s arrest” of potential law offenders. Point blank, Duterte says: “The criminal must die, you must live.” Even the new PNP Chief Guillermo Eleazar, who early in his term promised progressive reforms in the police, also consented to this institutionalization of vigilantes. Historically, vigilantes have been mobilized to terrorize civilians in the guise of counterinsurgency. 

In Negros where drug-related extra-judicial killings have spiked in the past weeks, this pronouncement could potentially justify these deaths as merely following dictats of state policy. Criminals, for Duterte and his armed lapdogs, include legal activists and petty drug users. Meanwhile, the big drug lords, like Peter Lim, run free. He is basically giving consent to crimes against humanity, the very basis for the International Criminal Court (ICC) probe which he grossly denies.

The ballooning budget for the unaccountable intelligence funds, acquisition of fighting jets and arms from the United States, and the 54.5 Billion allocation for Military and police pension in Bayanihan 3: Duterte is generous when it comes to his goons and guns. But he applies austerity measures for social services and aid to the majority of the people who have been most affected amid the pandemic.

Thus, the conditions for his ouster are ripe, but the decisive blow still lies in the collective action of the people. The ICC probe is a welcome step in holding this regime liable for its crimes, but we cannot trust Duterte to cooperate in any way with the proceedings. Arrest warrants from the ICC, according to former ICC Judge Raul Pangalanan, are not enough to lead the people to justice. Movement-building will.

Case in point: the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, a tyrant who oversaw the deaths of 10,000 people during the Darfur war, was only arrested by the ICC after he was ousted in a people’s revolution in 2019. ICC already ordered his arrest ten year prior, in 2009, on the basis of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. But in the end, it was still the people who gave the decisive blow and which led to his capture.

“Itong ICC, bullshit ito. Why would I defend or face an accusation before white people?” Duterte said in his usual cosplaying of anti-imperialist sentiments.

It’s not white people who will put you down, Mr. Duterte. We, the broad Filipino masses, will blow the last punch.

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