By Chloe Mari A. Hufana, Reporter

MOST Filipinos think the International Criminal Court (ICC) should focus on delivering justice for victims of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s war on drugs rather than the Marcos-Duterte feud, according to a WR Numero’s latest poll.

About six of 10 Filipinos (59%) said the ICC should prioritize addressing the extrajudicial killings linked to Mr. Duterte’s drug war.  Just 12% disagreed, while 18% were undecided.

The survey, conducted on March 31 to April 7, followed Mr. Duterte’s arrest on March 12 under an ICC-issued warrant.

The public sentiment reflected strong regional and demographic support for ICC intervention, WR Numero said. In Metro Manila, 70% said the ICC should center its legal and investigative efforts on ensuring justice for drug war victims.

Similar views were held by majorities in Luzon (68%) and the Visayas (65%), while opinion in Mindanao — Mr. Duterte’s political base — was more divided, with 32% in agreement and 30% opposed.

Support was also highest among younger Filipinos, with 61% of those aged 30 and below backing the ICC’s focus on victims. Across income classes, upper and middle-class respondents (Class ABC) showed the strongest support at 70%.

Nearly half (47%) of Filipinos thought victims of the drug war should escalate their pursuit of justice to the international court if local remedies fail. This view was particularly strong in Metro Manila (66%) and among Filipinos with a higher income background.

Hansley A. Juliano, a political science lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University, said the results show a shift in the political and moral values of Filipinos, noting that Filipinos might be tired of the Marcos-Duterte feud.

“Our younger audiences are a bit more cynical to clan or familial feuds, more so since increasingly, younger generations of Filipinos are developing attitudes away from or outside of traditional Filipino family ties,” he told BusinessWorld in a Facebook Messenger chat.

He added that this cynicism has affected how candidates in the May 12 midterm elections project themselves to voters.

“Beyond being clientelistic, they actively invest in developing an online personality/celebrity to get support,” he said. “This simultaneously makes it easier for audiences to explicitly say they’d rather focus on the merits of the case than continue casting the ICC case as a political maneuver, especially since this is blatant Duterte propaganda.”

The ICC probe into Mr. Duterte’s bloody war on drugs has become a political flashpoint in the Philippines, especially after the arrest of the tough-talking leader and the impeachment of his daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio.

Mr. Duterte, a maverick ex-mayor and former prosecutor who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was flown to The Hague on March 11, hours after his arrest in Manila.

This marked the biggest step yet in the ICC’s probe into alleged crimes against humanity during an anti-drug crackdown that killed thousands and drew condemnation around the world.

His trial is set for September.

WR Numero interviewed 1,894 voters for the poll, which had an error margin of ±2 points. It was commissioned by political scientist Gary D. Ador Dionisio.