Compassion and Contempt

The Philippine Senate has found its voice on humanitarianism. Unfortunately, it only speaks for the powerful.

Senate Resolution No. 144, which urges the International Criminal Court (ICC) to grant house arrest to former President Rodrigo Duterte, is a masterclass in selective compassion. Citing his age and health, 15 senators have cloaked a political plea in the language of mercy. But this sudden concern for human dignity rings hollow against the years of silence they maintained while thousands of Filipinos were slaughtered in Duterte’s brutal war on drugs.

If humanitarianism is truly the standard, then the Senate’s priorities are tragically misplaced. According to 2022 data from the Bureau of Corrections, nearly 3,000 persons deprived of liberty aged 65 and older languish in our congested prisons. These are the sick, the forgotten, and the powerless. They have no resolutions filed for them. Where is the senatorial compassion for the mothers, like Mary Ann Domingo, who lost both a husband and a son and must live in constant fear? True compassion belongs to the victims, not the architect of their suffering.

Ironically, the Senate’s resolution may be the best argument for the ICC to deny their request. The Rome Statute is clear: interim release can be refused if an accused wields influence that could obstruct justice or endanger witnesses. This resolution is a stunning demonstration of Duterte’s enduring political power—proof that state institutions can still be mobilized to protect him. The plea for leniency serves as Exhibit A for why it cannot be granted.

More troubling is who now preaches mercy. Several senators who voted for this resolution were the same ones who, in 2016, shut down investigations into the drug war, dismissing the chilling testimony of confessed hitman Edgar Motabato. They are the same figures who stood by or actively participated as Senator Leila de Lima—one of the earliest and most vocal critics of the killings—was unjustly imprisoned for nearly seven years before being vindicated by the courts. Having silenced the truth-tellers and ignored the victims, they have forfeited any moral authority to speak on humanitarian grounds. Their compassion is not a principle; it is a political shield for an ally.

Ultimately, justice cannot be devoid of compassion, but compassion cannot exist without accountability. Duterte has never offered a single word of remorse for the tens of thousands of lives lost under his watch. There has been no repentance, only defiance. To grant him comfort while his victims’ families are denied justice is a profound betrayal.

Apart from being a non-binding piece of paper, Resolution No. 144 is an insult to every family that still mourns. It proves, once again, that in the Philippines, mercy is a privilege reserved for the powerful, while the poor are left with nothing but memories and a long wait for justice.