MANILA – Former president Rodrigo Duterte, once the Philippines’ firebrand leader, is now under custody after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity over the brutal drug war that defined his presidency.
The tribunal sought the assistance from global police force Interpol to enforce the arrest warrant, which was served as soon as Mr Duterte landed in Manila on March 11 after a campaign event in Hong Kong with his political party’s senatorial candidates held a day prior.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) cooperated, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has signaled his administration’s willingness to comply with the ICC’s directive.
This is a stark reversal from Mr Marcos’ earlier dismissal of the ICC’s jurisdiction, where he had argued that the tribunal had no business intervening in the country’s internal affairs.
But his position shifted following his political fallout with the Duterte family. Tensions escalated in February after Mr Duterte’s daughter, vice president Sara Duterte, was impeached over her assassination threat againstMr Marcos and for misusing millions worth of public funds. Her trial begins in July.
This then triggered Mr Duterte to use his recent campaign speeches to accuse his successor of being a drug addict, an allegation the president has repeatedly denied.
The ICC lacks its own police force, relying instead on Interpol and its member-states to carry out arrests.
To enforce Mr Duterte’s arrest, the ICC issued a diffusion request to the Interpol to officially seek the global police organisation’s cooperation in arresting the ex-president.
The PNP, accompanied by an Interpol representative, served Mr Duterte the warrant inside the airport. He was then escorted through a back exit and was whisked away via a police van along with his common-law wife Honeylet Avancena.
Police and media standby for the arrival of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte from Hong Kong, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines, March 11, 2025. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez
Police standby for the arrival of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City, Metro Manila, on March 11.PHOTO: REUTERS
The Philippines is no longer an ICC member, having withdrawn from the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, in 2019 under Mr Duterte’s directive. But the tribunal maintains that it still has jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed while the country was a member.
This is why the ICC’s probe, led by its prosecutor Karim Khan, has focused on the drug war killings during Mr Duterte’s first three years in office, from 2016 to 2019. He ran his anti-drugs campaign until the end of his term in 2022.
The police say that over 6,000 drug suspects were killed in Mr Duterte’s brutal drug war. But human rights groups claim the death toll could be twice as high, to include unreported extrajudicial killings allegedly carried out by police and vigilantes.
The notoriously tough-talking Mr Duterte said in his speech in Hong Kong that he was ready to face possible arrest.
“Assuming (the warrant is) true, why did I do it? For myself? For my family? For you and your children, and for our nation,” he said. “If this is truly my fate in life, it’s OK, I will accept it. They can arrest me, imprison me.”
Mara Cepeda is Philippines correspondent at The Straits Times.
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