THE United States, which incessantly boasts that it is the world guardian of the “rules-based international order,” passed a law in August 2002 warning the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it would invade its headquarters at The Hague or any of its facilities anywhere in order to forcibly free any American citizen the court arrests and detains.

Because of this, the law, while officially known as the American Service Members’ Protection Act, is colloquially called the “Hague Invasion Act.” The law’s provisions practically threaten to outlaw the ICC if it were to investigate any American. The Act has been codified as Subchapter II of Chapter 81 of Title 22, United States Code, making it one of the general laws of the US.

Among the many provisions of the law are its prohibition on the extradition of any American from the US or from any other country to the ICC; the banning of ICC officials from conducting investigations in the US; and the barring of any government agency, including the courts, from cooperating with the ICC.

The US claimed that its main reason for hostility toward the ICC is that the Rome Statute violates its Constitution, which provides that crimes committed on American soil can be tried only by US courts. The US also claimed that the ICC cannot prosecute members of its armed forces as well as its high officials for military acts authorized by the US Congress or by the president.

Three months before the invade-the-Hague law was passed, President George W. Bush’s administration formally informed the United Nation secretary-general that it was rejecting the Rome Statute and the ICC.

REJOINING the International Criminal Court (ICC) that we had withdrawn from in 2017 is by far the most illogical proposal I have ever heard in my career as a journalist in this country. It really doesn’t take much study to find out that such a move will hurt our country, even our economy, and yield zero benefits — if you know what the ICC is.

We joined the ICC in 2011 when this country was ruled by the self-righteous, sanctimonious Yellow cabal, which would have made the Philippines a member of the We Are the Global Guardians of Goodness Club, if there was such an institution. Among the lobby groups that pushed for it were organizations linked with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which has, since its founding in the 1960s, used “human rights” as an issue to criticize government.

Answer the following questions, and your head will spin as to why this is even an issue to hog headlines.

First question: Would you like the Philippines to be mentioned in the same breath as Afghanistan, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Darfur, Sudan, the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Palestine?

Those are the countries where the ICC has undertaken or is currently undertaking allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity purportedly committed by their former leaders. If we rejoin the ICC, the absurd, baseless case filed by then opposition senator Antonio Trillanes 4th against then President Duterte and his administration that thousands were killed in his “war vs illegal drugs” will be resuscitated and investigated. The Philippines will be put on that list of countries barely out of the Stone Age, where human life is not valued.

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is quite obviously being fed totally wrong information and analysis by his advisers on our territorial and maritime disputes with China in the South China Sea.

That this is the case was starkly demonstrated in his answers to questions asked of him by the host after his speech the other day at the Daniel K. Inouye Speaker Series at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.

The Presidential Communications Office, however, released only his speech, but not the transcript of the Q &A part. This, however, can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuEHkBIoXgs.

I’M beginning to suspect that it’s not the usual or obvious suspects who could be plotting to oust President Marcos Jr. Indeed, former president Rodrigo Duterte seemed to know something when he said on his radio program: “Be wary of the military.”

My suspects would be Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, his colleagues in that chamber Risa Hontiveros, Jinggoy Estrada and recently Francis Tolentino, together with Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Armed Forces Chief of Staff Romeo Brawner and National Security Adviser Eduardo Año.

Why do I say they are making moves that would oust Marcos?

THERE certainly have been genocides even in humanity’s recent history, the most horrible being the massacre of 1.4 million Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979.

But the genocide being committed by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza — 11,000 so far killed, including at least 5,000 children and most probably another 10,000 buried in the rubble of buildings destroyed by US-made and paid-for bombs — tests our very humanity.

Because of technology, we are witnesses to the daily massacre of civilians since October 8 by the arrogant Jewish state demanding collective punishment of 2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip for Hamas’ atrocity in killing 1,200 Israeli civilians, and taking 240 hostages.

Every day, we see the limp, bloodied bodies of dead children, we see them crying out in pain and terror dealt by US bombs, and recently, we were shocked witnesses to a horrifying scene of 36 infants who had to be taken out of incubators because the hospital no longer has power to run the machines, and therefore left to die on a table.

It is a disgrace that most of mainstream media in our country have chosen to ignore this genocide with some, based on their choices of articles, cheering on the Israelis in their massacre of Palestinians. This is another testament to the hold of the US on our media.

I COULDN’T believe my ears when my friend who is a resident of the wealthy enclave told me that. Even the rich can’t be safe in their own houses, in an expensively secured subdivision?

While it wasn’t reported on the village’s association website nor in its Facebook page, the Philippine Daily Inquirer did report it, first on October 31 (“6 Chinese abducted in Muntinlupa”) and then on November 1 (“6 abducted Chinese still missing”) — although it was strange the headlines didn’t say “Alabang,” which they knew would have caught more attention. Several tabloids also reported it.

I suspect the kidnapping would have been kept under wraps by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and a section of media that it has compromised. It was not the Manila-based reporters who filed the report but a correspondent in Lucena City.