Rodrigo Duterte, former Philippines president, is now under arrest in the Hague by the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged over his indiscriminate killings without trial during his “war in drugs” while in power. The official toll stands at 6,000, though activists believe the real figure could run into the tens of thousands. He is the first Asian former head of state to be indicted by the ICC and the first suspect to be flown to The Hague in three years.
It is a pivotal moment for the ICC given recent high profile arrest warrants for Putin and Netanyahu which are unlikely to be enforced. Non-member states include the United States, Russia, and China.
Rodrigo Duterte, 28 March 1945, Maasin, Philippines, has an Aries Sun in the line of fire of the approaching Aries Eclipse and this coming October’s Libra Eclipse. So a critical turning point for him. His Sun is opposition Neptune square Saturn and trine Pluto, sextile Uranus – so is the key planet in his chart. Along with his Mars in Pisces which is square Uranus, trine Saturn and on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune. A super-ambitious, overly-assertive and determined individual.
Tr Neptune Saturn in Aries will undermine and block his Cardinal T square of Sun. Neptune, Saturn from 2026 for a couple of years. And tr Uranus will cause a flurry of insecurity and concern when it is square his Mars also in 2026.
His Presidency chart, 30 June 2016, has planets in all three Water signs with Cancer Sun, Venus and Mercury trine Neptune, South Node and Chiron in Pisces and Mars in Scorpio – with two central oppositions from Sun Venus opposition Pluto and Neptune opposition Jupiter. Plus Jupiter opposition Neptune square Saturn; and Venus opposition Pluto square Uranus. It is a weirdly interconnected chart – hinting at a lack of reality, vengefulness, over hopefulness, over control and a reckless need to upset the status quo. Tr Uranus was just finishing the opposition to the Mars in Scorpio – hinting at chickens coming home to roost for his bull-headed all-or-nothing approach.
The ICC itself, founded 1 July 2002 in Rome, has a Cancer Sun close to the Sun on Duterte’s presidency chart – so fitting it has stepped in. It has a robust, enduring Saturn opposition Pluto so well designed to stand up to challenges from countries which object to being held to international standards of justice. Though it will be facing a turning point this year with tr Uranus square the ICC its natal Uranus which is always a staging post for a rethink about future direction. And it will be jolted and jangled in 2026 when the Solar Arc Uranus squares the Saturn.
The ICC’s relationship with Netanyahu is in turmoil and increasingly stressed through this year and worse in 2026/27.
The ICC rift with Putin will widen after events of late April, into May this year.
Tr Neptune Saturn into Aries will further erode an already chilly relationship with Trump from this May onwards and not improving in 2026/27.
Rare good news on human rights and accountability front. Duterte certainly had this coming.
Interestingly, the arrest took place the same week Voislav Torden, a Russian Neonazi of Rusich Company was sentenced for war crimes committed in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 in Finland. Torden entered Finland in 2023 with his family, declaring to wanting his childen to have a Nordic education. His wife apparently had been accepted as a student in a Finnish University. He was captured under Ukrainian issued warrant. Today, he received a life sentence at first grade (represented by a “celebrity” criminal lawyer who lost his license for years and, according to people I know who’ve been to an opposing side or judging, is a moron)
An appeal is unlikely to bring any change to the sentence. I am infact thinking he might have entered Finland because our “lifer” is max 22 and often delegated to 14, and obviously, our prisons are “humane”. He thought he could avoid worse. However, a great development overall, Russians surviving this war who partook to the invasion and coming to Western Europe will do it on their own peril.