Senator Risa Hontiveros on Saturday, March 18, said the warrant for arrest against Russian President Vladimir Putin was a strong message to the global community that the world would not idly watch while war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity are being committed within territories of individual countries.

The warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Hontiveros said Moscow may continue to argue that the warrants are moot, but member-states to the ICC are duty bound to arrest those upon whom warrants are served when they come into the territory of an ICC member-state. 

‘’This already severely curtails movement of perpetrators. Further, Kyiv has accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC over crimes on its territory,’’ she said.

‘’And who knows if a future Kremlin leader decides that it is in their interest to give up Putin to the ICC. Di ba ito ang nangyari kay Slobodan Milosevic? (Didn’t this happen to Slobodan Milosevic?)’’ she asked.

Hontiveros expressed hope that there is something to be learned from this. 

Apparently alluding to the previous Duterte administration, Hontiveros said that those who continue to deny justice to victims of State-sponsored abuses, including the excesses of a failed drug war, should consider the Putin warrant as a fair warning. 

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,’’ she added.