By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Last week was a very eventful one in the country. To some the event was some sort of justice, to some it is just a political agenda; a case of politics rearing its ugly head.
The arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte, materialized due to an arrest order from the International Criminal Court based in The Hague, Netherlands, brought about such reactions. The order was coursed thru the INTERPOL.
Not long ago, the former president boldly dared the ICC in a live televised statement, saying in effect: “ Come and arrest me, before I die”. He got his wish, his supposed comeuppance.
PBBM and other concerned government officials were always telling us that even if an arrest warrant is issued by ICC, the government will not cooperate but if the INTERPOL is used to enforce the arrest order, the government will be forced to do something. That is to say of course, that the arrest order will be enforced if one becomes a reality, come what may.
FPRRD must answer any malfeasance that he may have committed but personally, I believe the PBBM government should not have easily yielded to the ICC’s insistence to have the former President transported to the Netherlands posthaste. Self-respect for the Philippine government, including its own justice system should have been carefully considered. Somehow we have lost a good level of dignity by allowing a foreign entity to impugn our judicial system. Our top national leaders were apparently drowned by the childish dares and attacks (although very weak) by its critics.
It would have been better had our leaders started to conduct formal court proceedings against even the former president. Such proceedings, in my mind, would have prevented the ICC to issue an arrest order and haul down the first head of state into its detention facility in Netherlands. Now we are wallowing, bewildered, in the negative side of history.
There are certainly more notorious international offenders like President Putin of Russia, Bashir of Syria and Netanyahu of Israel. Their crimes are diligently chronicled in international media. In fact, there were also arrest orders for them from ICC. They were not of course offered for slaughter to ICC.
Whatever we say now though, no longer carries any weight. Sec. J. Remulla of DILG said, “Nasa korte na ang labanan”.
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The quiet transfer of power from the previous to the present chief minister last March 3, 2025 in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, was overshadowed by the Duterte caper. This is the appointment of the new Chief Minister Macacua, a former governor, vice previous CM Murrad of BARMM. Am not sure if this news was aired by the national mainstream media.
I happened to be in Cotabato city for about 12 days starting Mar 4, 2025 for some important activity related to agriculture in the region. The city is the seat of government of BARMM. The region’s governance structure is different from the existing Philippine system. It is headed by a Chief Minister, then Senior Minister(similar to a Vice Pres.), then Minister (similar to agency Secretary); under the ministers are director generals, then directors, and so on.
My first informal meeting was with a young professional who advises the current S.M. He strikes me as a no nonsense individual who, in my estimation, will be somebody someday in the region. He talked of how progress should be all-in, meaning nobody will be left out among the groups (Moros, settlers or Christians mainly, and Lumads or IPs) in the region. A noble view of the future, indeed.
Then I visited the SM’s office for a courtesy call, carrying a short communication for future discussions. The SM was out, but a young, vivacious secretary was gracious enough to let me know of what their office is doing, and even shared some nuggets of their history such as why children of datus and other royalties before were not sent to school, and many more. She never told me, but I learned later that she is actually an attorney. More later.
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