‘Democracy does not die in one night, but bleeds with every sanctioned killing.’
THE charges made public by the International Criminal Court confront those who attempt to erase the dead.
Seventy-six murders are listed as evidence; thousands more form the backdrop of this case. In sum: crimes against humanity.
Behind every paragraph of the ICC’s charge sheet is a name crossed out, a life extinguished, a family left to grieve.
The ICC’s filing on September 22 does not accuse a state of failing to protect its people. It accuses a leader — former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte — of designing a system to kill them. From his “DDS” years in Davao City to the nationwide “war on drugs,” prosecutors allege a Common Plan: the deliberate use of police and hired guns to “neutralize” suspects by murder.
These are not stray encounters. They are described as a widespread and systematic attack against civilians — a machinery of death where killers were fungible, victims disposable, and approval flowed from the top. That machinery is now before judges in The Hague, the “City of Peace and Justice.”
Among those surnamed in the public-redacted filings are Dela Rosa, identified as the PNP chief who vowed to “scale up” the Davao model, and Aguirre, quoted as saying “we will choose to kill these drug lords,” a remark he has denied.
The documents do not show first names. But earlier ICC records identify “Director General Ronald Dela Rosa,” and external reporting confirms Aguirre as then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. Their appearance underscores how institutional the killings had become, even if the public record leaves much redacted.
On September 8, what should have been the first confirmation hearing was postponed. Duterte’s lawyers — a costly battery of legal minds with a global footprint — argued he is cognitively unfit to stand trial.
Yet the story is complicated at home. One ally hints he remains sharp, while another rails against the Court in language that reveals more fury than fact.
What, then, is at stake for the Philippines? Not jurisdiction — that has been settled. Not secrecy — the charge sheet is public.
The ICC process strips away euphemism: “neutralization” means murder; “rewards” mean bounties on life; “lists” mean death warrants.
What remains is whether political power will dictate memory. To spin and overwrite the record is to abandon the victims twice — once in life, again in history.
Duterte’s allies call this a foreign intrusion. But sovereignty without accountability is not strength; it is corruption of the truth. The deeper instability is a nation that shrugs at the organized killing of its own.
We do not pre-judge guilt. The Court will test the charges and the defense alike. But the charge sheet is more than paper — it is the first time the architecture of impunity has been laid out in a court of law.
Democracy does not die in one night, but bleeds with every sanctioned killing. It heals only when the law is allowed to speak for the silenced who never saw their day in court.
