The spell that led us to the ICC

During his opening remarks last Monday at the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber’s confirmation of charges hearing in “The Prosecutor v. Rodrigo Roa Duterte”, Atty. Joel Butuyan, the victims’ common legal representative, highlighted the role of online propaganda that has gripped a large portion of the Philippine population.

“Many of these mini-Dutertes or Duterte clones are actually victims of massive doses of fake news widely circulated online,” Butuyan said. This online propaganda, he argued, had converted peace-loving citizens into "bloodthirsty disciples" who were conditioned to believe that extrajudicial killings were a valid and necessary solution to societal problems.

Butuyan used these points to emphasize why it is not enough to just "know" the facts; the evidence must be presented in a high-profile, public trial to break the spell of the propaganda. Using a medical metaphor, Butuyan told the ICC judges that the only way to "vaccinate" the public against this disinformation is through the formal trial process. “Truth is the antidote to the virus of impunity, Your Honors,” he said.

I have well-meaning friends and colleagues who say that the current ICC process against the former president is a shameful admission that domestic accountability mechanisms in the country have failed. I concede it is a source of shame, but it is a shame we brought upon ourselves for allowing our people to be poisoned by social media disinformation. The framers of our Constitution, as well as those who successfully shepherded our accession to the Rome Statute that created the ICC (before our eventual withdrawal in 2019) seemed to have foreseen this moment: a time when our society is vulnerable to populist demagoguery.

Now, we are at a point of no return. It is likely that the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber will confirm the charges against former President Duterte and that the case will proceed to trial. There, we will hear more painful revelations about what the previous administration did to our people, our institutions, and our values, in the service of populist posturing on “peace and order.”

Close to a decade has passed since the first election in 2016 that social media heavily influenced, yet online disinformation and misinformation remain dominant factors in shaping people’s political choices --choices they might not make in a more informed democratic exercise.

One oft-repeated line of propaganda --and, sadly, a perception held by many-- is that peace and order were excellent during the Duterte administration, that the drug problem was significantly curbed, and that the same problem has worsened under the Marcos Jr. administration. This misconception, and in many cases outright falsehood, is fueled by social media disinformation.

The illegal drug problem was never solved by the killing of thousands of drug suspects during the Duterte administration --killings now described as crimes against humanity in the ICC proceedings. Yet many still live under the illusion that Duterte’s iron hand solved the problem when it did not. Worse, it weakened the moral foundations of our democratic institutions and corrupted the Philippine National Police. Duterte left a legacy that damaged institutions and helped turn many of our countrymen into fanatics, while enabling opportunists to ride the popular Duterte train.

The data from government agencies like Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency suggest that while the tactics have shifted, moving from a high-fatality approach to one focused on high-value seizures, the drug problem remains a significant challenge for both administrations. Yet the same pro-Duterte spin doctors in social media and legacy media gloss over real data, including the value of drugs seized and the number of drug-cleared barangays.

The glimmer of hope comes from the youth. More and more of them are becoming aware of the harmful impact of social media on the information ecosystem and on our democracy. My senior high school students in Media and Information Literacy have offered excellent insights on this, after I assigned them to write a reflection paper on the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma.”

I have asked their permission to share their reflections and insights, and I will write about them next week. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with this one from my student Chauncey: “Media and Information Literacy is about recognizing that the media is an environment. It shapes how we think, what we believe, and what we value… If our (social media) feeds can shape our beliefs and behaviors, then being media and information literate is not optional—it is necessary for protecting our focus, our mental health, and our freedom to think independently.”