Leaving the ICC
As a non-lawyer, I will leave the legality issue on whether or not the Philippines should withdraw its membership from the International Criminal Court, as ordered by President Duterte, to the legal experts. Let me instead try to examine why Duterte has grown so frustrated with the West, specifically western leaders and western institutions.
Duterte is frustrated because he has never really been given a chance by those the Philippines has been made to believe are its friends. Take the United States, for example, and very specifically then president Barack Obama. Obama used Duterte to prop up his own sagging image by publicly calling out Duterte on his drug war while on the way to attend an ASEAN Summit in which Duterte himself was expected to attend.
Obama could have earned Duterte's respect if he had called him privately on the phone and expressed his concern directly to the Philippine leader the way real men do. But no, Obama chose to make a spectacle for his own benefit at Duterte's expense by shaming the Philippine leader publicly. Duterte could have passed up the insult had Obama been just another leader from, say the Caribbean. But Obama is the USA which is supposed to be the Philippines' good old friend through thick and thin.
Then came a litany of United Nations agencies that could have used diplomatic channels to air their concerns, diplomatic solutions being at the very root of why the United Nations came into being. But no, these litany of UN agencies came out publicly condemning Duterte, often without so much factual basis than what they have read in the papers, usually from those that are predisposed to criticize Duterte for political reasons.
To the last one of them, these agencies and their representatives all prejudged Duterte, proclaiming him virtually guilty in all their public pronouncements. What then do you expect of Duterte? How on earth is he expected to respond, submit himself the way colonial subjects used to submit to their European colonizers? If at all, this attitude toward Duterte is reflective of that bygone era, especially given the effrontery of the Philippine president to stand his ground before the masters.
And then came the straw that broke the camel's back. An ICC official actually calling Duterte nuts by suggesting he have his head psychologically evaluated. What kind of an official of a supposedly respectable international body is that? Worse, the ICC never lifted a finger to correct such a disgraceful act, thereby saying it is correct to insult world leaders like that, world leaders who are heads of sovereign nations and duly elected in democratic elections.
Whatever the world may think of Duterte, he continues to enjoy wide support from his own people and if for that alone his standing in the community of nations deserves public respect. You may say all you want behind his back but in public you give him some respect because that respect is not for him alone but for his people as well. Disrespect him publicly and you disrespect 110 million Filipinos. Disrespect him and you prove yourself to be no better but even so much less.
But why is the world really ganging up on Duterte? Because his high profile makes him a convenient scapegoat for all the hypocrites frustrated in their own failures to meddle in the affairs of others. China, they cannot touch. Russia they cannot rein in. North Korea is a slap to their faces. Even Myanmar frustrates them. Because in that country sits as leader a woman they installed as a model for their won fallacy. To hide their shame, they pick on Duterte. So yes, let's leave the ICC.
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