The Special Rapporteur’s report compels urgent legal and institutional measures to dismantle the structures of impunity that continue to subvert the rule of law. The Philippine government now faces a decisive choice: to maintain a legal order that instrumentalizes law as a tool of repression, or to finally fulfill its obligation to uphold democratic accountability and human rights.

Humanitarian considerations must also not eclipse the demands of justice, especially in cases involving crimes against humanity. Age and health, while relevant, cannot outweigh the rights of victims to see the process of justice carried to its end.

Issues of judicial independence also loom over the Senate, There, the Dutertes are benefiting from a wide berth in their political influence, wrongly and unlawfully, to delay or even to kill the trial. They should not emboldened to do the same hullaballoo at the ICC.