International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan had spoken: “The judges have issued that warrant and it’s been executed. And in issuing the warrant, the judges have found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte has committed the crime of murder… (T)he fact that it’s been executed is important to victims. It means a lot, I think, to victims. That’s the feedback… (M)any say that international law is not as strong as we want, and I agree with that. But as I also repeatedly emphasise, international law is not as weak as some may think when we come together, when we work, when we build partnerships, the rule of law can prevail, warrants can be executed. And it’s important to underline as we now start a new stage of proceedings that Mr. Duterte is presumed innocent. He will make his initial appearance before the court soon and the focus of the office is on the judicial proceedings and on proving its case.”
It was not easy to make such a statement in front of the camera. The production work of issuing it was complex, not to mention the very difficult task of the actual arrest of the former Philippine leader continents away from the Court. Let us continue studying the statement and the action that went with it, but this time with an expert’s help.
“It’s a combination of media engagement, crisis communication, managing an office, production, messaging. All of those things are the practice of strategic comms [communications]. And in the end, it’s a political process. I believe, because ultimately you are representing a government agency. It’s a very different entity from corporate comms. Your obligation to the public is different in the ethical practice of communication inside government agencies.”
Dr. Clarissa David, a political communication scholar, mentioned this when she was interviewed for PCS Review 2022. Although this has nothing to do with the ICC arrest, I am always reminded of that political process in every move or speech of a public official anywhere in the world.
The fact that the ICC arrest warrant was carried out “is important to victims. It means a lot, I think, to victims.” Was that assertion coming from Prosecutor Khan important to say? Some may think it was contentious. If that was important to victims, if that means a lot to victims, the legal camp of the accused may cry foul.
As seen from the totality of this case in communication, it is not foul.
Both the victims’ relatives and the kin and supporters of the Dutertes have been crying foul. The statement in question did not emanate from any of the three women judges of the ICC. We have heard prosecutor offices here and abroad issue long-winded statements, and Khan’s is no exception. It is not a simple, straight news type of writing or broadcasting, but a statement from someone mainly responsible for taking legal action against a high-profile accused.
Khan continued: “Many say that international law is not as strong as we want, and I agree with that. But as I also repeatedly emphasize, international law is not as weak as some may think… When we come together… the rule of law can prevail.”
The communication professor, Dr. David had this elucidation: “The nitty-gritty of it is really comms—writing speeches, writing press releases, understanding the nuances of production work for social media videos, growing your social media followers, responding to questions from the media—all of these are essentially part of PolComm.”
Interestingly, she “was most proud of her research on extrajudicial killings, which she did with a consortium of researchers from U.P., Ateneo, and La Salle. For her, the project was advocacy work in the form of research.” (Magpayo, 2022)
How about maximizing politeness and preserving a positive image? Therefore, evoking the statement in question through the “maximise politeness” socio-pragmatic principle, will it fail? Will a party into the case now cry foul?
It is not a foul, either. Huwag balat-sibuyas, Filipinos may opine. No less than the Supreme Court of the Philippines has issued numerous decisions telling public officials not to be too onion-skinned, underscoring the need for them to be tolerant of criticism and complete public discussion. Private Rodrigo is not private at all, as his previous public acts and orders continue to hound many.
Recall that Ferdinand Marcos Sr. said that “history is not through with me yet” in a 1987 Playboy interview as if it had to happen. Scary, but closing book chapters on blood-stained accounts of conflict (e.g., the Duterte-led “War on Drugs”) and related public acts is easier said than done.
Dr. David emphasized that generating evidence in several ways, research included, will lead to effective communication. What comes next will be research culture, according to her.
She expounded, based on experience as a pro: “What we did was we built a database of tokhang killings in 2016 up to 2019 yata […] Ultimately it was a comms research task ‘cause what we did was content analysis. We built a database almost exclusively from media content. We were looking at ABS-CBN, GMA, Inquirer, everything online, and trying to build a database of people who were killed in the drug war that were covered by the news… [All] these information for transitional justice purposes […] Maybe 10 or 15 years down the line we can see justice for at least some of them, that they are not going to be nameless and faceless numbers.”
Is this column space trying to examine the ICC Prosecutor Office’s political communication strategies about the Duterte arrest? Maybe. Some may say it is not immaterial. One thing is clear, though: Duterte will try to continue doing what he is good at: confusing us.
It has become a good communication problem now that the former Philippine leader is in Court custody. Spectators are central and are expected to just listen to what is about to be communicated and watch political processes unfold. We are all central to this, with a presumption that political messages force us to react.
DC Alviar
Professor DC Alviar serves as a member of the steering committee of the Philippine International Studies Organization (PHISO). He was part of National University’s community extension project that imparted the five disciplines of a learning organization (Senge, 1990) to communities in a local government unit. He writes and edits local reports for Mega Scene. He graduated with a master’s degree in development communication from the University of the Philippines Open University in Los Baños. He recently defended a dissertation proposal for his doctorate degree in communication at the same graduate school under a Philippine government scholarship grant. He was editor-in-chief of his high school paper Ang Ugat and the Adamson News.
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