DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Six weeks ago, a van piled high with flowers pulled up at the International Criminal Court’s detention centre in The Hague. The court also received deliveries of birthday cards. Lots and lots of them.
They were all for the newest inmate, Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, who turned 80 on March 28. The tributes were evidence of his enduring popularity there, though he is accused of crimes against humanity for ordering a brutal antidrug campaign in which tens of thousands of people died.
“The place was inundated with flowers, and I brought some of the mail out because they didn’t know what to do with it,” Mr Nicholas Kaufman, Duterte’s lawyer, said in a telephone interview. He said he had left with three sacks of mail for Duterte that the court was unable to vet. In the Philippines, thousands of people dressed in the green associated with Duterte’s political party flooded the streets of Davao City.
With Filipinos voting in midterm elections May 12, Duterte appeared certain to win another term as mayor of Davao City, by a landslide, according to an unofficial tally of partial results, though if convicted he could spend the rest of his life in prison. He was the city’s mayor for 22 years, in three separate stretches, before assuming the presidency.
By 11.30pm, preliminary returns with 76 per cent of the vote counted showed Duterte capturing 63.3 per cent of the vote, far ahead of his closest rival, Karlo Nograles, at 7.8 per cent. Election officials will not formally announce the winners of the races until May 13.
Duterte’s sudden arrest and extradition to The Hague in March has divided the Philippines. While some polls show that a majority of Filipinos back the investigation, many of Duterte’s supporters believe that he is a victim of political persecution by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, once an ally of the Duterte clan.
Soon after Duterte’s dramatic arrest, Marcos’ approval rating plummeted to 25 per cent from 42 per cent a month earlier, according to a survey conducted by Pulse Asia. But that of Ms Sara Duterte – the current vice-president and daughter of Rodrigo Duterte – rose to 59 per cent from 52 per cent.
Ms Sara Duterte has long been considered a future presidential candidate. But this election, in which half the Senate is up for grabs, could prove pivotal for her. She has been impeached on charges that include corruption, plotting to assassinate Marcos, involvement in the drug war killings and incitement to insurrection, and the country’s 24 senators will decide this summer whether to convict her.
In Davao, where Rodrigo Duterte remains beloved, his dynasty is thriving. A son, Sebastian, who is the current mayor, appeared poised to win the vice-mayoral race, according to the preliminary results. He is expected to act as mayor in his father’s place, as it remains unclear whether Duterte can take his oath from detention in The Hague. At least seven members of his family took commanding leads in May 12’s local election.
For the first time ever, three political families – the Nograleses, the Garcias and the Al-ags – have combined forces to challenge the Dutertes, their former political ally, in Davao. But even Bernie Al-ag, who is now running against Sebastian Duterte in this election, said he was unhappy about Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest.
“I also look at him as a father figure,” said Mr Al-ag, who is a former vice-mayor of Davao.
Before the election, Ms Mags Maglana, a non-governmental organisation worker who ran for a congressional seat against Mr Paolo Duterte, another of Rodrigo Duterte’s sons, said she was concerned that “the outpouring of sympathy for the father would cascade over to the rest of the family.” By 11.30pm, Ms Maglana had obtained only about 0.3 per cent of the votes.
Duterte’s camp has used his case in The Hague as a campaign tool. At a rally in Manila on May 8, a video of his arrest was played. His supporters wore T-shirts and carried posters that said: “BRING HIM HOME.” Ms Sara Duterte told the attendees that the country was “paying the price for electing the wrong leader.”
“What’s even more painful is that they managed to kidnap the former president and hurriedly threw him into another country to be tried by foreigners,” she said.
That other country, the Netherlands, is far removed from the life that Rodrigo Duterte is used to.
The first issue was the food. (It is unclear what exactly is served in the detention facility but Liberia’s former president, Charles Taylor, once complained that the food was too “Eurocentric.”)
Dr Fadi El Abdallah, an ICC spokesperson, said the court did not comment on matters related to the private lives of detainees.
Rodrigo Duterte said he was “not used” to the meals on offer, according to Mr Kaufman, prompting the lawyer to request “culturally appropriate food.” For Duterte, that is rice – which he is getting now, according to Ms Sara Duterte.
“That’s what we asked for and it’s cooked perfectly,” she told reporters at The Hague earlier. “Correct according to Filipino taste.”
Rodrigo Duterte’s family was allowed to supply him with groceries including his cherished Coke Zero, according to Ms Sara Duterte. She told reporters that he had complained about why he was only getting Coke Zero once a day, and that he needed at least two cans a day.
Life is regimented. Rodrigo Duterte huddles with Mr Kaufman every morning in a conference room. In the afternoon, he meets with some family members. He’s allowed time to exercise in a gym that is set up with a court to play basketball, tennis and badminton. There is another communal space with a foosball table. He is one of six people in custody, according to court records.
According to Ms Sara Duterte, her father, who is diabetic, has nurses monitoring him. He has access to library books and a computer that allows him to review his defense filings but is not connected to the internet. In the late mornings or afternoons, he’s allowed to make telephone calls to numbers that have been vetted in advance. He has a television so he can watch the news.
“Jokingly, some people refer to it as a five star Hilton,” Mr Kaufman said. “But it’s still prison.”
The small detention facility is within a Dutch prison in The Hague. One of its former residents was Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo, the first former head of state to reach trial at the court. He was acquitted along with another Ivorian political leader, Charles Blé Goudé, who was represented by Mr Kaufman.
In a filing to the court this month, Mr Kaufman argued that there was no legal basis for the case against Duterte because the Philippines was no longer a state party to the Rome Statute – the treaty that forms the basis for the court’s legal authority – when the court allowed an investigation into the drug war in September 2021. His lawyers called for Duterte’s immediate and unconditional release.
A hearing for the confirmation of charges is scheduled for Sept 23.
In Davao, dozens of volunteers have camped out in front of Duterte’s house since his arrest. Ms Janice Mahipus, 45, an online seller, said she had been sleeping outside the house, first on cartons and then on a bed a few metres away.
“We will never get tired waiting for him,” she said. NYTIMES
Join ST’s Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
