A video on YouTube is claiming that President Ferdinand Marcos has allowed the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. This is not true.
On Aug. 3, a YouTube channel published the video with this headline:
“KAKAPASOK LANG BUMALIKTAD na! PRES MARCOS PINAYAGAN na ang ICC sa PAG ARESTO kay DUTERTE at SEN BATO
(Just in, he reversed his stance! President Marcos has allowed the ICC to arrest Duterte and Sen. Bato [Dela Rosa])”
This headline is a clickbait. Marcos never made any statement explicitly permitting the ICC to arrest former President Duterte should the court come out with a warrant.
The video, which continues to circulate this week, opened with a discussion of the Uniteam’s weakening alliance following the resignation of Vice President Sara Duterte as education secretary and her absence from the president’s State of the Nation Address last month.
Throughout its 20-minute run, the video mainly featured the interview of Dela Rosa on his sentiments if and when the arrest happens. It also included the reaction of former Senator Antonio Trillanes III to Dela Rosa calling him a self-proclaimed ICC spokesman.
The video, however, carried a clip from a news voiceover that mentioned the reported statement of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla that the government will not stop the ICC if it chooses to directly interview Dela Rosa, retired general Oscar Albayalde and three other suspects in Duterte’s anti-drug war.
Early this month, Remulla did say in a press conference that they will not stop the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) – not the ICC – from going after Duterte and other high-profile suspects for the previous administration’s bloody anti-drug war that led to the killing of thousands of drug suspects.
Remulla also said that while the Philippines is no longer a member of the ICC, it is still part of the Interpol.
The video with the wrong claim gained further traction after Vice President Duterte criticized the Marcos administration for “bowing down” to the whims of foreign organizations like the ICC.
YouTube channel KABAYAN NEWS PH (created on April 29, 2020) published the video that garnered over 17,000 views and 600 interactions, potentially reaching at least 122,000 users on YouTube.
