OPINION | BY ROB RANCES
The International Criminal Court was never meant for us.
It was created as a last resort. For countries with no courts. No laws. No people left to discern right from wrong.
But the Philippines is not that country.
We have courts.
We have a Constitution.
We have a people.
So why is a former Philippine president—elected by millions, debated by all, but undeniably ours—rotting in a foreign jail?
Not tried.
Not heard.
Not judged by the country he once served.
Just surrendered.
Exported.
Discarded—like our sovereignty never mattered.
I. WHAT IF HE DIES THERE?
Tatay Digong.
The father figure who stared down narco power when everyone else stayed silent. The only president who made the forgotten believe they mattered.
Today, he barely eats.
He stares at a screen.
He sits in silence, stripped of the war he once waged—not because he surrendered, but because our own leaders surrendered him.
And now the question no one dares speak becomes too loud to ignore:
What if he dies there?
Not vindicated. Not condemned.
Just… gone.
No due process.
No Philippine trial.
No moment of reckoning that the Filipino people were owed.
II. JUSTICE WITHOUT SOVEREIGNTY IS NOT JUSTICE
You don’t have to love him. You don’t even have to agree with him.
But once we hand over a leader—no matter how flawed—to a foreign court…
We hand over the very essence of nationhood.
We lose our right to wrestle with our past.
We give away our ability to hold our own leaders accountable on our terms.
We become spectators in our own history.
This isn’t justice. This is outsourcing our conscience.
III. THE WORLD NEVER WALKED OUR STREETS
The ICC never knew what it was like to walk in fear of drug syndicates. To lose a child to shabu. To feel a city transform under the iron will of a man determined to take back the night.
They don’t understand our hunger. They didn’t build our barangays. They didn’t cry with mothers who buried sons—killed not by cops, but by cartels Duterte tried to crush.
So when they say “justice,” what they really mean is: “We’ll decide your fate. You don’t deserve to.”
IV. THE BETRAYAL CAME FROM WITHIN
He didn’t escape justice.
He was denied justice—right here, at home.
No trial.
No hearing.
No chance for the Filipino people to judge him first.
Because in March 2025, something shifted:
- A silent handshake behind closed doors.
- A quiet clearance.
- A flight to The Hague—without a fight, without a word.
The betrayal didn’t come from The Hague. It came from Malacañang.
The very house he once led… sold him out.
Not for justice. But for politics.
Not because he failed the people—but because he threatened the power of those who now pretend to serve them.
V. REMEMBER WHAT HE STOOD FOR
Under Duterte:
- Drug lords fled.
- Crime rates fell.
- Millions felt protected—for the first time.
He didn’t beg.
He negotiated with a spine.
- Build, Build, Build reshaped the nation’s veins.
- Free college tuition and universal healthcare reached the poor.
- He wasn’t all words—he was all action.
Was he perfect? No.
Was he feared? Yes.
But for many, he was the only president who actually did something.
And that made him dangerous to elites who only knew how to control puppets, not protect the people.
VI. IF HE DIES THERE—AND WE DO NOTHING—WE ALL LOST
Let this sink in.
If Tatay Digong dies in that foreign cell, without ever being judged by Filipinos, then every institution that stayed quiet…
every so-called nationalist who looked away…
every official who signed the silence…
will answer to the generations who still remember.
They will ask:
“Where were you when they erased the man who gave us back our voice?”
“Why did you let foreigners write the final chapter of a Filipino life?”
And what will we say?
“We were told it was legal”?
“We didn’t want to speak up”?
“We let go… for convenience”?
No. Not us. Not now.
👊 POWER PUNCH: THIS IS OUR MEMORY—OR OUR MISTAKE
This is not about defending a man. This is about defending a nation’s right to judge itself.
And if we don’t rise now—not for vengeance, but for truth—then we were never sovereign to begin with.
Because Tatay Digong’s voice may have been caged.
But the fire he lit?
It didn’t die.
It scattered—into us.
Into the parents.
Into the students.
Into the tired workers who still whisper his name with tears and grit.
So to every Filipino with a conscience:
Whatever your politics, don’t ever forget this…
They didn’t bring Duterte to justice.
They bypassed it.
They denied us our right to judge.
And history will ask:
Where were the Filipino people…
when one of their own was judged by foreign hands?
Let the answer be:
“We rose.”
“We remembered.”
“We reclaimed.”
For justice.
For sovereignty.
For country.
••••
OPINION | BY ROB RANCES
Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece written for the purpose of civic discourse, historical reflection, and national moral inquiry. It does not intend to preempt ongoing legal proceedings, attack the character of any individual, or discredit any lawful institution. Rather, it seeks to raise critical questions about sovereignty, justice, and accountability in the context of Philippine democracy. All views expressed are those of the author and are protected under the 1987 Philippine Constitution’s guarantee of free expression and public participation on matters of national concern. This piece contains no malicious intent, incitement to rebellion, nor defamatory accusations, and should not be construed as libelous, seditious, or criminal in nature.
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