Less than a year after I joined Index in 2017, Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered. Of all the words that come to mind when reflecting on Caruana Galizia – both in life and in death – “impunity” stands out most vividly. Perhaps it was a warning of things to come. Impunity is alive and well today. As the rules-based global order strains, criminals are no longer merely walking free, they are walking the halls of power. But this week, justice finally caught up with one of them: Rodrigo Duterte, former president of the Philippines. On Tuesday, he was arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and flown to The Hague.
Duterte was also on my radar when I arrived at Index. He became president in 2016 and held office until 2022. He embodied a particular kind of autocrat, one we’ve sadly become all too familiar with: vulgar, brazen, insecure, chaotic, chauvinistic and brutal. During his presidency, Index maintained regular contact with the team at Rappler, the leading news outlet in the Philippines, which Duterte was particularly hostile towards. Miriam Grace A Go, Rappler’s news editor, penned a defiant piece for us in 2018, detailing the harassment journalists faced. They were regularly targeted with threats, described as “paid hacks who deserved to lose their jobs, be jailed, raped, or murdered,” and had to increase their security. A year later, Go wrote of Duterte’s descent into a vicious, power-drunk figure who harboured a pathological and violent hatred for women.
Duterte’s arrest this week stemmed from his so-called “war on drugs,” which is estimated to have left up to 30,000 dead, primarily poor, young men. His brutality extended far beyond this tragic group. In 2020, we honoured one of his victims, the radio journalist Rex Cornelio, in an obituary.
In the nearly three years since Duterte stepped down from the presidency, it looked unlikely that he would ever face accountability. Another case of impunity, it seemed. But Duterte couldn’t resist stoking controversy. In a recent outburst, he called the current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., a “drug addict” and a “son of a whore.” Perhaps that expletive-laden broadside was his undoing. The rift between the Duterte and Marcos families ultimately paved the way for the ICC arrest.
This week, there will be no cheers from those who have suffered at Duterte’s hands, or from those of us who witnessed his rule with horror. It would also be premature to proclaim the days of impunity over. Instead, his arrest marks a small ray of light in these otherwise dark times.
