25/02/2026
🟥 THE LAST BOAT AND THE ISLAND OF SCREAMS
[An MCT Reflection]
Joel Butuyan stood before the International Criminal Court judges last Monday, supposedly addressing them in legal language about confirming charges against Rodrigo Duterte.
But if you listened closely—really listened—his opening statement was less a courtroom argument and more a warning shot across the bow for every Filipino back home.
He talked about a boat. The victims' "last boat" to justice, he called it.
If the ICC doesn't confirm the charges, he said, these families will be "forever moored on an island where the nights are filled with the screams and cries of their massacred loved ones."
That image should haunt us.
Because Butuyan wasn't just painting a picture for Dutch judges in The Hague. He was holding up a mirror to an entire nation that has learned to scroll past body counts like they're weather reports.
🟥 THE VIRUS METAPHOR WE NEED TO HEAR
Here's where Butuyan got uncomfortably direct. He called impunity a virus. Not just any virus—one that Duterte spread, that created "clones" of himself, that converted "millions of peace-loving citizens into bloodthirsty disciples who have become converts to the belief that violence and killings are valid solutions to societal problems."
Read that again. He's talking about us.
About how we cheered when Duterte promised to "fatten the fish in Manila Bay" with criminals.
About how we posted "less criminals, less crimes" on Facebook when the body count hit triple digits.
About how we convinced ourselves that extrajudicial killings were acceptable as long as they happened to "other people's" sons and brothers and fathers.
Butuyan's prescription? "Truth is the antidote to the virus of impunity."
But here's the problem—you can't cure people who don't think they're sick.
🟥 THE CONQUERING HERO SCENARIO
Butuyan warned the judges that if charges aren't confirmed, Duterte returns home "as a conquering hero" who "will resume preaching his gospel of impunity."
The lawyer pointed out something that should terrify everyone: if Duterte could threaten to slap ICC judges while in office, imagine what message that sends to victims living in communities "that thrive" on support for the former president.
Many families are afraid to even participate in the ICC case because they're surrounded by neighbors who still worship Duterte, who still believe the drug war was justified, who might turn violent against anyone seeking accountability.
This is the Philippines Duterte left behind. Not safer. Not cleaner. Just more afraid. More divided. More willing to accept violence as normal.
🟥 THE NUREMBERG COMPARISON
Near the end of his statement, Butuyan made a historical comparison that should make every Filipino sit up straight.
He said this trial needs to create "a historical account on the mass murder of so many Filipinos during the Duterte regime" that future generations can access "just like the Nuremberg trials and the Tokyo trials so that they will learn from it and not repeat the same mistake of selecting and glorifying leaders who preach and practice impunity."
Think about that. We're being compared to N**i Germany and Imperial Japan. Not by some foreign critic with an agenda, but by a Filipino lawyer representing Filipino victims before an international court.
The drug war killed at least 6,000 by official counts, over 30,000 according to human rights groups.
Those numbers demand a reckoning on par with history's worst atrocities.
But here's the uncomfortable truth: many Filipinos still don't see it that way.
They see Duterte as the man who "cleaned up" the streets, who "had the balls" to do what needed doing.
Butuyan's statement was an attempt to break through that delusion, to force us to confront what we allowed to happen in our name.
🟥 THE BATTLEFIELD IS NOW IN COURTROOMS
Butuyan ended with something that should resonate with every Filipino who claims to love this country:
“Our ancestors fought in the battlefield to secure our right to life. In these modern times, the battleground for the fight to protect our right to life is within the four walls of this honorable court."
He's right.
Our heroes died fighting colonizers and dictators so we could have the right to life, to due process, to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Then we elected someone who threw all that away, who told police to kill suspects on sight, who promised pardons for murder.
The ICC confirmation hearing will determine whether Rodrigo Duterte faces trial.
But underneath all the legal procedures, something bigger is at stake: whether we as Filipinos still value the rule of law, or if we’ve permanently exchanged it for strongman politics and summary executions.
🟥 THE MESSAGE WE'RE PRETENDING NOT TO HEAR
Butuyan addressed the judges, but his words were meant for Manila, for Davao, for every barangay where families still live in fear of speaking out.
He was telling us that the "virus of impunity" didn't end when Duterte got arrested. It's still spreading.
It's infected how we think about justice, about human rights, about the value of life itself.
The question is whether we're willing to take the cure.
Whether we're ready to admit that cheering for extrajudicial killings made us complicit.
Whether we can look at those 497 victim families and see ourselves in their place instead of congratulating ourselves for not being "criminals."
Because if we can't, if we let this case fail or fade into noise, then Butuyan's warning will come true.
The virus keeps spreading.
Another "apostle of impunity" gets elected.
The cycle continues.
And that island where the screams never stop? We're already living on it.
We just haven't admitted it yet.
