A Netherlands-based solidarity group for the Philippines submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) today on the war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law committed by the United States-supported regimes of the current Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his predecessor Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

“Recently, the ICC Prosecutor stated his application for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We now challenge the ICC to do the same for the Filipino people: investigate the war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law of the Marcos Jr. and Duterte regimes,” said Paul Evers, spokesperson for the Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS).

The evidence submitted by the FFPS is a copy of the findings and verdict of the recently concluded International People’s Tribunal on the War Crimes of the U.S.-supported Marcos Jr. and Duterte regimes in Brussels last 17-18 May.

Joining the submission at the ICC is Jonila Castro, one of the witnesses to the IPT and a victim of abduction by the Philippine state. Castro is an environmental activist campaigning against destructive reclamation projects in Manila Bay. She also campaigns against Boskalis, a Dutch dredging company whose largest reclamation project yet is in Manila Bay worth 1,5 billion euros. On September 2, 2023, Castro and another activist Jhed Tamano were abducted by the Philippine military only to be resurfaced 17 days after. During their abduction, both environmental activists were psychologically tortured and were forced to surrender as ‘rebel surrenderees.’

“I came here to the Netherlands not only to confront Boskalis for its reclamation project that is devastating fishing communities in Manila Bay, but also to urge the ICC to look at the evidence of the Marcos Jr. administration’s brutality against environmental activists such as myself,” said Castro.

“We ask the ICC to jail Marcos Jr. and Duterte for their war crimes against the Filipino people. We ask the international justice system to fulfil its function and responsibility to end the impunity of war criminals from Palestine to the Philippines,” she added.

In addition to Marcos Jr., the group cites IHL violations that happened under the Duterte administration. Former President Duterte is currently facing an investigation by the ICC on his regime’s bloody ‘war on drugs’ which claimed the lives of up to 30,000 Filipinos in his six years in office. #