10/15/2025
Our new article has been released on the Hill Times, an important publication in Ottawa where the Canadian Parliament operates.
"DUTERTE'S ICC TRIAL TESTS CANADA's FOREIGN POLICY"
As Canada looks to expand military and economic ties with Manila, Ottawa has announced new defence co-operation with the Marcos government even as drug-war killings, political repression, and a corruption scandal engulf the country
Opinion | BY JESS AGUSTIN, PATRICIA LISSON | October 13, 2025
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For the first time, a former Philippine president faces charges of crimes against humanity. On Sept. 22, the International Criminal Court unsealed a redacted charge sheet accusing Rodrigo Duterte of command responsibility for at least 76 killings during his presidency and earlier tenure as mayor of Davao.
For families who lost loved ones, mostly poor and marginalized, this is historic. At home, justice was denied. In The Hague, they glimpse the possibility of accountability. And for Canada, a founding supporter of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and home to one of the world’s largest Filipino diasporas, the case raises uncomfortable questions about foreign policy and principle.
The ICC, set up in 2002, exists for moments when a country’s own courts will not act. It demands solid evidence: witness testimony, forensic records, and proof that those at the top gave the orders. Unlike the political theatrics in the Philippines, the court moves only through due process. As one lawyer put it, “The strength of the ICC is not that it condemns, but that it proves.”
Duterte’s campaign was one of the deadliest peacetime crackdowns in Asia. Police raids in crowded neighbourhoods of Metro Manila ended with suspects killed in what authorities called “shoot-outs.” Families were warned into silence. Over time the killings reached activists, reporters, and church workers. Human Rights Watch called it simply “a war against the poor.”
The courage of survivors brought Duterte here. Mothers carried photographs of their children through the streets. Churches opened their doors to the grieving. Lawyers filed cases despite threats. Support from Canadian unions, faith groups, and community advocates helped ensure the world could not look away.
The ICC has postponed the confirmation hearing after Duterte’s lawyers claimed he is too ill to stand trial. Philippine human rights groups condemned the delay as a ploy to dodge accountability, calling it an insult to victims who have already waited years for justice.
Appeals to illness have long been a tactic in the Philippines: past presidents facing corruption charges, such as Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, likewise cited poor health to seek leniency. Even as judges weigh Duterte’s fitness, the newly unsealed charge sheet underscores that this is no political stunt but a full criminal indictment built on years of evidence and survivor testimony.
Putting Duterte on trial places him beside a short list of former heads of state—from Serbia’s Slobodan Milošević to Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir—who were brought before international courts. But trials can drag on, allies can obstruct, and the habit of impunity is hard to break.
And Duterte is not the only one responsible. His policies were carried out by cabinet officials, police, and military leaders, local mayors and complicit institutions. Real justice means exposing that entire network.
Even with Duterte out of office, killings continue. Since Philipine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took power in 2022, hundreds have died in drug-war operations. Counter-insurgency programs still target activists and silence dissent. The same tactics remain in place.
This is why the ICC case matters beyond the Philippines. In Brazil, former president Jair Bolsonaro and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele have followed paths similar to Duterte’s “law and order” politics, using hard-line crackdowns that human rights groups say trample due process. The trial sends a signal: state-sanctioned violence will not be quietly ignored.
Canada has more than a passing stake. Filipino communities here carry this struggle personally. Many first arrived as exiles from Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s martial law in the 1970s and 1980s. Their children and grandchildren now press Ottawa to speak out.
The trial also collides with Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, which leans on expanding military and economic ties with Manila. Ottawa has announced new defence co-operation with the Marcos government even as drug-war killings, political repression, and a corruption scandal now engulf the country. To champion the ICC while deepening military partnership with a government that keeps Duterte’s policies alive and whose armed forces are known for corruption and human-rights abuses would be a contradiction hard to ignore.
Faith-based groups, NGOs, unions, and human rights networks across the country have urged Ottawa to break its silence. Whether Canada lends its voice now will show if its talk of human rights has real weight.
The road ahead is uncertain. The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2019, and Duterte’s allies still hold power. But the trial itself is a win for those who refused silence. The mothers holding photos of their sons, the lawyers risking their lives, the communities documenting abuses all remind us that impunity is not permanent. Justice may be delayed, but it can still arrive.
The ICC trial of Duterte tests whether global institutions can hold leaders to account and whether Canada will stand with the victims or look away.
Jess Agustin, formerly with Development and Peace–Caritas Canada, has devoted decades to humanitarian and development work across the Asia-Pacific. He served in Timor-Leste during its transition to independence, advising the church on peace and reconciliation, and now sits on the ICHRP Council, where he leads its Campaign Committee.
Rev. Dr. Patricia Lisson, a minister with the United Church of Canada, is a long-time advocate for social justice and human rights. She has travelled to the Philippines to witness Indigenous struggles and the impact of Canadian mining, and serves as chairperson emerita of ICHRP–Canada and vice-chair of the ICHRP Global Council, representing the coalition at the United Nations in Geneva.
The Hill Times
https://archive.is/MH9u0
