Next picture: Duterte’s ICC trial

AS the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is reaching its final phase, former President Rodrigo Duterte is about to face the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague on November 30, the starting day of his trial for crimes against humanity which could take months or even years.

Duterte faces three counts of crimes for his alleged involvement in at least 76 murders between 2013 and 2018 during his incumbency as mayor of Davao and as president of the Philippines.

The ICC trial will start on November 30 (a Monday).

According to ICC Presiding Judge Joanna Korner, “we will expect his attendance on a daily basis.”

On day 1, the prosecution will deliver an opening statement, followed by those of  the victims’ legal representatives.

As to what goes on in Duterte’s mind at the moment, nobody really knows. But if I were in his shoes, I would recall words, deeds and events that might have led me to where I am. How would I defend myself against myself?

Down memory lane, let us recall that while campaigning for the May 2016 presidential election, then Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte vowed to eliminate crime by eliminating criminals: “If by chance God will place me there [Malacañang Palace], watch out because the 1,000 will become 100,000. You will see the fish in Manila Bay getting fat.”

The number 1,000, incidentally, refers to “criminals” who had been killed in Davao City.

During the Duterte presidency, according to the Philippine National Police (PNP), more than 7,000 men and women succumbed to his “war on drugs.”

Human rights organizations, however, estimate the total number of deaths as having hit 30,000.

As admitted by then PNP Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, some 2,500 of those victims were illegal drug pushers and users who had “resisted arrest and fought police officers.”

Speaking to reporters in Davao City on September 30, 2016, former President Rodrigo Duterte said, “Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there are three million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them.”

But he could not have bested Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, which had gone down in history for having murdered six million Jews, not three million, during the Holocaust.

If “killing three million” were the President’s solution, then it was a crime worse than the problem it was supposed to solve.

Duterte seemed to insinuate that drug addicts would do anything – even rob, steal or kill – to keep themselves “high.” The only way to stop them is to deprive them of the drug, which is next to impossible where there is supply.

There is so much money flowing from the illegal drug trade that drug lords and their pushers could not resist gambling their lives for it.

The “tokhang” or crackdown on pushers and users had somehow induced artificial scarcity, which was ironically good for the really big drug dealers. From what I read in the papers, the price of premium shabu has gradually climbed from PHP 1,300 per gram in 2016 to PHP 7,000 today.

Thus, it puzzles us that the President’s war on drugs remains focused on users and small-time drug dealers whose “elimination” would hardly matter. Why not corner the big ones who control the supply source?

Early in July 2016, Duterte visited a military camp where he told the soldiers and police, “Where is the big fish? If you want them, go to China. Look for them there.”

Duterte went many times to China but never looked for the big fish there.

In fairness to the Ddutertes, the presence of drug suppliers in the Philippines went off long ago in September 1992 when 20 kilos of shabu wrapped in an air parcel package surfaced at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Package recipient Mary “Rosebud” Ong “sang” before the Senate the “protection” that the Chinese drug lords were getting from “PNP generals.”

But that’s another story that is still accessible on the Internet.