THE HAGUE, Netherlands -Are there truly anti-Duterte fighters in The Hague and around Europe? That seems to be the doubt we have been habituated with — hypnotized into thinking, thanks to an overabundance of social media coverage by the troll supremacy of Duterte Diehard Supporters.
There was a time immediately after Rodrigo Duterte’s arrival in The Hague in March this year that DDS public manifestations were a daily fare. The daily gatherings have since dwindled, for the right reasons.
Converging at first in an open space across the detention unit of the International Criminal Court, Dutch residents complained. It wasn’t just the noise. There was the garbage, both the literal and the repugnant. Then they started knocking on doors to pee. In the Netherlands, peeing in public can cost you a fine of 140 Euros. They never thought of the logistics they needed to rally with.
Dutch police then started to bar them. They were banished into an area away from residents, a small space on a wooded side street that police enclosed with metal barriers, and this is what DDS have since called “Duterte Street.” The metal barriers are mandatory – it means they can only stay within that small confined space. The name Duterte Street is a euphemism for a very negative connotation.
In The Hague as in the Philippines, Duterte’s rabid supporters are a pain in the neck. The now infamous Duterte trademark is there – public behavior that does not care for consequence. One begins to wonder how his case in the ICC can be won given the DDS’s inclination for public disturbance that attracts only antipathy. Surely his capacity for disorder will have a bearing.
One begins to wonder too – are there really anti-Duterte fighters around Europe?
That is where the difference lies. If the DDS can afford what used to be daily public manifestations that have become nuisance to Dutch residents, those gatherings must be bankrolled well. In contrast, anti-Duterte advocates do not have the same wherewithal. Where is DDS money coming from is a question we must endlessly ask.
September 23, 2025 was a red-letter day. It would have been the day when the ICC’s pre-trial chamber 1 of three judges would have heard for the confirmation of charges – it is called indictment in our legal system’s parlance. Once indicted, the chamber would have then ruled to proceed to full-blown trial under another set of trial chamber judges. That is now postponed until the present chamber hears Duterte lawyer Nicolas Kaufman’s argument – and the prosecution’s counter-argument — that the prisoner from Davao City is not mentally fit. It is of course based on a blatant lie.
The absence of funding for anti-Duterte fighters did not stop them to converge in The Hague at their own expense. Many were OFWs eking out a living in Europe. They came from Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland, the UK, Spain, and the Netherlands. Many came from the Philippines, including two members of drug war victims whose presence was key in telling first-person narratives. Some came on borrowed money or money contributed by kind souls. There was no bankrolled fund, certainly not from flood control public funds stolen by politicians.
It was preceded on Sunday September 21 by a protest rally right outside the International Criminal Court – with official Dutch police permission. It was a rally against the Duterte disinformation and propaganda machine.
The following September 23 gathering took place in an open square just outside the iconic Peace Palace – again with official Dutch police permission. It was a unity of persuasions for collective resistance. The groups were Migrante Europe, Magdalo International, Bunyog (Bicol-based but with international members), Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA Pilipinas), Kakampinks, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, Gabriela, Karapatan, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, and a host of private individuals not associated with these groups but who simply cared about seeing the end of Duterte tyranny in the Philippines.
Tinay Palabay of Karapatan opened with a situationer of the cause against the Duterte EJKs. Each representative was then heard. There was no consideration if one was right or left. It simply was come one come all. On the pavement were sprawled three effigies of the dead EJK victims. A couple of Dutch residents stopped by to watch and listen. This was a public area surrounded by office buildings and cafes, nothing residential.
Grace came from Manila. Her family had lost both her father and brother to the Duterte killing sprees. Another family member shared the loss of their brother during the one-time-big-time EJKs. It was the first time to hear first-person testimonies from victims’ families in all of Europe.
Instead of budots dancing, the rally concluded with something poignant. Individual photos were distributed of the many victims in the six years of Duterte mayhem for blood. Their names were called out. After each name, there was a shout of “Justice!” This rally was for them. It was the main substance of this rare gathering that was out of funds but not without supporters.
One photo pulled at the heartstrings. It was a face I could not mistake because I had written about him in 2024. Bladen Skyler Abatayo was a little boy in nursery school when he was felled instantly as collateral damage of the drug war in their neighborhood in Cebu city on July 10, 2018. Skyler was inside their house and had just finished doing his school homework with his mother Gwynn.
Unknown to the Abatayos, a killer squad of police under Cebu city police chief Royina Garma was in the neighborhood ostensibly after a group of young men in a pot session. Garma’s killer squad would later say there was a shootout – the classic nanlaban. But neighbors said there was none.
Suddenly, Skyler’s mother heard a loud bang. She turned to Skyler. The boy was already bleeding and was unconscious. Everything happened in a mere instant. The mother called her husband Marc who was out for work. And then she fainted. Neighbors rushed Skyler to the hospital. Bladen Skyler Abatayo, only 4 years old, was dead on arrival. He was hit on the chest by a police bullet purchased by state money to protect the country’s citizens, not the bloodlust of a savage president who derived his power from fear and intimidation.
Two days later, Royina Garma sent a wreath of flowers at Skyler’s wake. The family returned the flowers. That was the right thing to do.
As it was the right thing for the protest rally at The Hague in saving the memory of Skyler and the thousand others like him killed by Duterte’s orgy. This was about them. The message that day outside the Peace Palace was crystal clear and there was no mincing of it – Duterte must rot in jail.
One placard summarized it all – No pardon for a butcher.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
