Duterte's ICC arrest is a victory for a faltering rules-based order

We aren’t party to the Rome Statute [1].

Our refusal to coöperate with the ICC doesn’t undermine the rules-based international order, which is first and foremost based on a notion of state sovereignty. It undermines the international human rights project (that admittedly seems to be dead).

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_Statute

I think it is fair to point out. George Bush helped erode the rules based order with the Iraq war. The US has always refused to accept anything that would limit exercising it's power.

I bet that Duterte's victims would consider it a victory.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

Totally ridiculous take. Duterte didn't stop drugs or rape at all. He condoned and decriminalized vigilantism and mob killings. Police abuse of powers was wildly out of control, and the cities were full of motorbike riding assassins. People were literally getting killed in the street and left with a sign claiming they were "pusher"s. During that time, he also attacked journalists who reported negatively and opposition politicians. There was a large sentiment suggesting the government/police force was INVOLVED in the drug trafficking even.

It was a horrible time in the Philippines and even worse, you can draw a LOT of parallels between his campaign and time in office to Trumps. Both used Cambridge Analytica data to manipulate voters on social media (and traditional media) and had "troll armies" on social media, both ran on populist/disestablishment platforms, both very "macho" and Duterte said horrible stuff that his press secretary pawned off as "Bisaya humor", where Trump did the same thing and pawned it off as "locker room talk". Trump cozies up to Putin just like Duterte cozied up to Xi Jinping even as he was encroaching in the West Philippine Sea. Duterte had his "oplan tokhong" targeting drug users (he said they were raping babies), where Trump has his ICE people going after brown people (he said they're eating peoples dogs). Both also wanted to alter their constitutions to allow longer terms for themselves.

If you put your tinfoil hat on for a moment, you could probably make a convincing argument that Duterte's presidency was like a pilot program for Trump's.