Ask A Genius 1337: Rodrigo Duterte Arrested by ICC: A Turning Point for Global Justice?
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/04/06
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I have done a book project with the humanists in the Philippines.
This is true: the Humanist Alliance Philippines, International. One name that repeatedly came up in my research and interviews years ago was Duterte. So, the ICC also issued a warrant for Duterte. The Philippines is not a tiny country. What is its approximate population, Mr. Atlas Reader?
Rick Rosner: I do not know—at least a hundred million, right?
Jacobsen: That is a big deal. A hundred million people. That is two and a half times the population of Canada.
So, if that is the case, what happens when you miss an ICC warrant for someone from a country much more significant than Israel—just shy of Russia in global terms? Moreover, he is now in court for crimes. How does that sound?
Rosner: I do not know—I will check it out. Let me take the question. That was just a wild guess. I do not know if it is a hundred million or two hundred million. I might even be confusing it with Indonesia, which is a massive country, too.
Jacobsen: So, the estimated population of the Philippines is about 120.86 million people as of 2025. It is the thirteenth most populous country in the world.
Now, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on March 11, 2025, at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, following an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on March 7—four days earlier. He was charged with crimes against humanity related to the anti-drug campaign, which allegedly resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killings.
A plan had been developed allowing for potential scenarios to detain Duterte either in Manila or Davao City. This plan included maps of Duterte’s properties and the locations of his allies. Police General Nicolas Torre led the operation. After his arrest, Duterte was transferred to Villamor Air Base, where he underwent booking procedures. He reportedly resisted, resulting in a standoff that lasted approximately twelve hours.
Eventually, he was escorted onto a government-chartered Gulfstream G550 jet. The flight departed Manila at 11:03 PM local time, made a layover at Al Maktoum International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, and landed at Rotterdam The Hague Airport in the Netherlands. He is currently in detention at Scheveningen with the consent of the Philippine government.
Rosner: And Netanyahu—where was he? Wasn’t he just in America a moment ago?
Jacobsen: I have no idea what his itinerary is.
Rosner: But yes, he was either in America or Europe this past week, and nobody apprehended him. Because Israel remains the most significant ally of certain Western powers.
Jacobsen: They are an isolated country in a definite geopolitical sense. All right—so if antisemitism rises high enough in the United States, they may abandon Israel.
Rosner: I mean, look, I support Israel, but I do not support Netanyahu. Moreover, that is a rugged stance to take right now because Netanyahu’s policies are what people associate with Israel. Plenty of Israelis want him gone, but they have not yet protested strongly enough to make it happen. So Israeli complicity is—well, public opinion is complicated. I do not want to go down that rabbit hole right now.
Jacobsen: But sometimes, a war criminal can be held accountable.
Rosner: During the Kosovo War, they prosecuted a few individuals. I am not sure if anyone was executed. I think Slobodan Milošević died of a heart attack in 2006 while in custody in The Hague before his trial could be completed. Still, you are right—there has been minimal success in going after mass-murdering leaders.
Jacobsen: There were the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials after World War II. Hideki Tojo and Iwane Matsui were convicted for their roles in wartime atrocities. Tojo was executed in 1948. Matsui was also executed that same year for his responsibility in the Nanjing Massacre.
Then there is the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which indicted 161 individuals. There was also the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Former Chadian president Hissène Habré was convicted of crimes against humanity in 2016 and sentenced to life in prison. Jean-Pierre Bemba, a Congolese politician and former rebel leader, was sentenced by the ICC to 18 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including sexual violence committed in the Central African Republic—though that conviction was later overturned on appeal in 2018.
So, no, I do not believe in magic. Prayer does not work, but it is comforting for people. However, if enough people apply enough pressure and work at these things, you can get some sweet justice.
Rosner: All right—but that justice largely depends on the sovereignty of the nation ruled by the criminal. That sovereignty has to weaken or fall apart.
So—or, I mean—there are very few cases where UN governance supersedes and overrides national governance. You either need the country’s consent or that country’s government to collapse, allowing you to sweep in and apprehend the former leader of a state that no longer functions.
Jacobsen: In my very simplistic terms, I argue that the justice we get is the justice we make. That is not unrealistic. It is about as scientific as one can get regarding morality. I mean, the universe is. Therefore, the justice you get is the justice you make.
Rosner: I want to add something—about Trump. I believe Trump is responsible for more deaths than any of the convicted mass murderers you mentioned because Trump mishandled COVID. Around 1.4 million Americans have died from COVID-19.
Moreover, sure, you could argue that it was COVID that killed them, not Trump. However, then you have to play the “what if” game. What if he had not disbanded the rapid response pandemic team in 2018? He did not just fire them—he scattered the team, reassigned everyone, and let the structure fall apart. Would a more competent leader have done the same?
Many people argue that hundreds of thousands more died than needed because someone incompetent was in charge. Moreover, is that a prosecutable offence? Well, not really. Still, he presided over the deadliest event in U.S. history—by far.
And then Trump apologists will say, “Yeah, but so many more people died of COVID under Biden.” Trump had ten or eleven months of COVID under his term. Biden had four years. Moreover, Trump politicized the pandemic early on, setting the stage for even more deaths under Biden due to the toxic attitudes and misinformation he promoted.
Moreover, what Trump is doing now—with DOGE and with tariffs—will lead to the deaths of tens, and probably hundreds of thousands more people in the coming years.
So far, all anyone has managed to get him on is 34 counts of falsifying business records—election-related but not officially termed “electoral fraud.” Even then, the other pending cases have been delayed or complicated now that he is president again. Even sentencing in the 34-count case—where he was convicted—has been postponed because he is considered untouchable while in office.
Even the $83.3 million judgment for defamation—after a civil jury found that he sexually abused E. Jean Carroll (not rape in the criminal sense, but a serious sexual assault)—has not yet been paid, despite the appellate court upholding the verdict. So yes, it appears unlikely that the president of the most powerful country in the world will be held accountable, at least not while in office. The UN will not do it. And neither will the American government.
All right.
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