A plate of sweet pork exposed a deepening rift among Filipino loyalists rallying behind former president Rodrigo Duterte outside his detention centre in the Netherlands after a birthday bash ended in a bitter shouting match.
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A viral video from the August 15 celebration in The Hague showed former Duterte spokesman Harry Roque berating other guests after learning that someone had mocked him online for attending and eating humba – a caramelised version of adobo. The visibly furious Roque offered to buy all the humba, claiming he had been insulted and “blasphemed”.
Roque and his rival in the clip, activist Alvin Sarzate, later dismissed the idea that humba had sparked the quarrel, attributing it to political differences instead – though neither elaborated.
The scene gave a taste of the simmering factionalism that has taken root in The Hague, where loyalists of the former Philippine president – now detained by the International Criminal Court (ICC) – have become a regular and rowdy presence.
Duterte, 80, has been in the ICC’s Scheveningen detention centre since March, awaiting trial for alleged crimes against humanity over his bloody war on drugs.
His supporters have rallied outside the facility nearly every day, transforming the sedate Dutch seaside district into an unlikely outpost of Philippine political theatre.