2025.03.11
Manila
Rodrigo Duterte, architect of Philippine drug war, arrested on International Criminal Court warrant
ormer Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte takes oath during a senate inquiry on the so-called war on drugs during his administration at the Philippine Senate, on Oct. 28, 2024, in Manila, Philippines.
Aaron Favila/AP
Acting on an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, the Philippine police detained former president Rodrigo Duterte at Manila airport immediately after he arrived from Hong Kong on Tuesday.
Duterte, 79, arrived with his entourage aboard a Cathay Pacific flight and was served the warrant. He went voluntarily with the police, accompanied by his aides.
“Upon his arrival, the prosecutor general served the ICC notification for an arrest warrant against the former president for crimes against humanity,” the presidential palace said in a statement. “He is currently in the custody of Philippine authorities,” the statement said, adding that the officers who arrested Duterte were wearing body cameras..
A government doctor examined Duterte, who was seen walking with a cane, and said the former president was in good health.
Duterte appeared before the Senate and the House of Representatives in October and November, respectively, where he defended his administration’s war on drugs that he said was meant to protect the youth.
Duterte has never denied his heavy-handed approach to crime, and has insisted that it was necessary to rid the Southeast Asian country of crime. At the House hearing, he dared the ICC to once and for all subject him to an investigation.
“I am asking the ICC to hurry up and if possible, if they can come here and start the investigation tomorrow,” Duterte had said. “This issue has been left hanging for so many years. I might die even before they investigate me. That’s why I am asking the ICC, through you, to come here.”
On Tuesday, the former president tried to reason with arresting officers, asking them “What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?”
“I was apparently brought here not of my own volition, and somebody else’s. You have to answer now for that deprivation of liberty,” he said, according to a clip by GMA News television that showed him sitting down at the airport lounge and talking to the arresting officers.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had earlier blocked the Netherlands-based ICC in the Philippines, but subsequently changed his mind after Duterte’s statement. Marcos insisted that the country’s justice system was working perfectly well.
Duterte’s lawyer, Salvador Panelo, charged that the police did not allow him to meet with his client. “It’s unlawful arrest,” he stressed. “He was deprived of legal representation at the time of his arrest.”
He reiterated that because the Duterte government had withdrawn ratification of the statute of the created the ICC, the Philippines was no longer covered under its jurisdiction.
But former justice secretary Leila de Lima, whom Duterte’s government put in jail on false drug-related charges, said the arrest for the former president had finally arrived.
“The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte is the beginning of a much-need reckoning,” de Lima told BenarNews, minutes after Duterte was arrested. “This arrest should not only signal the end of impunity but ignite a larger movement for justice, transparency and the restoration of human rights.”
De Lima, who survived a hostage taking incident while in detention, stressed that the arrest “really had to happen.”
“The victims, the families of the thousands killed under Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs have been crying out for justice and they really looked at the ICC as their best hope because they feel, rightly so, that they could not really get a speedy justice from the local or domestic authorities,” she stressed.
She said the ICC had been quietly doing its job, and that Duterte’s arrest was expected by the rights community. “That is one of the most significant developments in current times,” she said, of the ICC arrest warrant.
The arrest, De Lima said, would “have a lot of impact on the political climate in this country.” She said that Marcos’ hands were tied by the political alliance he had made with the Duterte family at first. “
“But when the unity broke up, we could see the gradual softening of this administration’s position,” she stressed. “So politically, this is an ace on the part of Mr. Marcos (because) the issuance of the warrant of arrest was the best way of getting rid of Mr. Duterte (since) there have been reports of destabilization efforts attributed to forces within the (police) and the military still loyal to the former president.”
Bryony Lau, deputy director for the Human Rights Watch in Asia, said the arrest was a “critical step” towards accountability in the Southeast Asian nation.
“His arrest could bring victims and their families closer to justice and send the clear message that no one is above the law,” Lau said in a statement. “The Marcos government should swiftly surrender him to the ICC.”
Mark Navales and Jeoffrey Maitem contributed reporting from Davao City, and Gerard Carreon from Manila
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