Probe’s bigger picture

“Marcos won the 2022 elections partly because of his pledge for continuity, which voters took to mean the resolute anti-crime campaign of former President Duterte would continue.

Forces who are members of the politically bankrupt yellow hypocrites are hoping to spring a surprise against the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. by luring him into a fatal trap.

Efforts to make the government cooperate with the International Criminal Court have more than what meets the eye. It is not about the rule of law but the probability of a political resurrection in 2028.

Last 29 November, the House Committees on Justice and Human Rights adopted a consolidated resolution urging the Marcos administration to cooperate with the ICC investigation on former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

The cabal of hypocrisy then indicated that Marcos has softened and that the opportunity of an ICC probe in the country on former President Rodrigo Duterte and officials implicated in the crimes against humanity case presented itself.

There is no such thing as cooperation based on the officials’ statements. Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said that ICC probers can conduct their investigations in the country, but the government will not cooperate.

Marcos never broached a change in the administration’s position of not engaging with the ICC, but he indicated that returning to the ICC membership is “under study.”

On the probe, he said that the international tribunal’s jurisdiction on the country remains “problematic.”

The government has raised the temporal jurisdiction challenge to the ICC as it questioned the decision to proceed with an investigation being issued long after the country has withdrawn as a member.

ICC argued that it has jurisdiction when the alleged extrajudicial killings, or EJK, that it seeks to probe, happened.

In the 3-2 decision of the ICC in favor of the launching of the probe, the majority of the magistrates did not address the question of jurisdiction.

The minority, however, did tackle the subject of membership, saying that the ICC’s pre-trial court “erred in law in concluding that the Court had jurisdiction despite the Philippines’ withdrawal.”

Thus, the issue is far from settled, and the country can raise it despite the ruling to start the inquiry, which was what Marcos was referring to when saying that the jurisdiction matter remains problematic.

Also raised was the complementarity principle in which the ICC can only intervene if the judiciary is unwilling or incapable of functioning regarding the EJK issue.

An ICC probe in the country will be a major opportunity to resurrect the forces already consigned in their political grave.

Those leading the push for Marcos to open his arms to the ICC are the left-wing legislators and the civil socialites targeting a 2028 comeback.

Since the ICC said that it would investigate beyond the term of Duterte as president, what will stop the desperate hypocrites from clamoring for human rights probe farther back in the country’s history?

Ramifications of the probe may present an opportunity for a propaganda offensive targeting the youth who seem to eagerly pick up most of what they know during the martial law period from whatever is fed to them by the radicals and the yellow society.

Marcos won the 2022 elections partly because of his pledge for continuity, which voters took to mean the resolute anti-crime campaign of former President Duterte would continue.

The anti-narcotics crusade, despite the brickbats from the liberal democrats who are now seeking to coopt Marcos, was the foundation of the high approval ratings of Duterte until he stepped down from office.

Degrading the strong support of Duterte will have a knock-on effect on Marcos despite the strong pro-democratic image he has built for more than a year since 2022.

The anti-Marcos forces target two birds with one stone by instigating political fanfare in letting the ICC do what it pleases in its EJK probe.

These targets are those who occupy the highest posts in government.

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