Philippines Arrests Former President Rodrigo Duterte on ICC Warrant
wsj-logo
WSJ
Mar 11, 2025 11:00 AM IST
Human-rights groups say more than 12,000 people were killed in antidrug operations between 2016 and 2022.
The Philippines said Tuesday it had arrested former President Rodrigo Duterte on a warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity during his bloody “war on drugs.”
Former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested(AFP)
Former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested(AFP)
The arrest—a rare triumph for the Hague-based court, which has struggled to get states to act on its warrants—is likely to bring to a head a feud between Duterte’s successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and his daughter, Sara Duterte, the country’s vice president. It could also rock the Philippines’ relationship with the U.S., which counts on the country as one of its closest allies in its accelerating standoff with China.
Marcos’s office said it took the 79-year-old Duterte into custody Tuesday morning after he arrived back in Manila on a flight from Hong Kong, after Interpol provided a copy of the ICC warrant. The court launched an investigation into Duterte’s war on drugs in 2021.
Human-rights groups say more than 12,000 people were killed in antidrug operations during Duterte’s six years in office, when police and state-backed vigilantes violently targeted and executed suspects. Duterte, who pulled the Philippines out of the Rome Statute, the treaty that governs the ICC, in 2019, has defended the policy, saying that it was aimed at protecting the country and its citizens.
Write to Gabriele Steinhauser at Gabriele.Steinhauser@wsj.com
rec-icon Recommended Topics
Share this article
Philippines
Rodrigo Duterte
Read breaking news, latest updates from US, UK, Pakistan and other countries across the world on topics related to politics,crime, and national affairs.
See More
Read breaking news, latest updates from US, UK, Pakistan and other countries across the world on topics related to politics,crime, and national affairs.