In his letter to the then Speaker Romualdez, Paolo said that the “expenditures incurred from this trip are from my personal funds alone.” That was the only disclosure he mentioned. Nowhere in his letter did he state the purpose of the trip. That's point No. 1: the trip is cloaked in secrecy even if it meant the traveller was using official leave from his government job. That alone is an ethical dilemma.

When viewed together, the legal stalling at The Hague and the coordinated political pressure at home reveal a strategy designed not only to shield the former president from accountability. The Duterte camp appears to be buying time as part of a broader gambit aimed at weakening the Marcos administration and clearing space for a Sara Duterte takeover before the ICC can weigh the evidence against her father.