Last weekend, Rodrigo Duterte rallied thousands of cheering Filipino migrant workers in Hong Kong on his first overseas trip in years. Upon his return to Manila on Tuesday, he joined a rare club of ex-leaders arrested for breaching international law.
Police greeted the former Philippine president at the airport to execute a warrant from Interpol after the International Criminal Court at The Hague ordered Duterte’s arrest following a probe into his deadly drug war that defined his rule. Video showed officers escorting the 79-year-old politician as he walked with a cane through the terminal.
The dramatic scenes, which sent stocks tumbling, marked the end of a yearslong quest by human-rights campaigners to hold Duterte to account for an anti-narcotics campaign during his presidency from 2016 to 2022 that killed more than 6,000 people. Yet the timing of his arrest also coincides with increased political tensions with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and comes shortly before legislative elections in May.
Last month, Sara Duterte was impeached as vice president by Marcos allies in the House of Representatives on charges she plotted to kill the president and misused public funds — accusations she has denied. A Senate trial, which would determine if she will be removed from office, is scheduled to begin in July.
“Since ICC has no enforcement power and would rely on the cooperation of the member state, if the two clans were in good terms, the administration would never allow the enforcement of the arrest warrant within Philippine soil,” said Leo Camacho, a constitutional expert and lecturer at the Ateneo School of Law in Manila. “Things changed when the alliance broke apart.”
Sara Duterte said her father was being “forcibly taken” to The Hague on Tuesday night from the Villamor military airbase in the capital, where he had been held after his arrest. The information couldn’t be immediately verified by the Philippine government or ICC.
It’s a stunning blow to Duterte, once frequently referred to as the Donald Trump of Asia for his radical leadership style. He is one of the few former leaders of a country to be served an arrest warrant over charges filed at the ICC.
The Philippines’ benchmark stock index fell more than 2% on Tuesday, the most among Asian equity gauges and its biggest drop since Jan. 31. The peso was up 0.3% against the dollar.
Duterte petitioned the Supreme Court on Tuesday to halt enforcement of the ICC arrest order, saying it has no automatic legal effect in the country.
The Philippines under Duterte withdrew from the ICC in 2019. The decision was affirmed by Marcos shortly after he assumed office in 2022, saying the nation had no intention of rejoining The Hague-based court. Yet in a change of tone last year, the Marcos government said it would cooperate if the ICC refers the process to Interpol and seeks the Philippines’ help.
Duterte questioned the legal basis of his arrest. “I was brought here not of my own volition,” he said in a video posted on daughter Veronica Duterte’s Facebook page. “It’s somebody else’s. What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also weighed in on the arrest, with a spokesman telling reporters Tuesday that the ICC should follow the law and “avoid politicization and double standards.”
The ICC holds accountable those who commit acts of mass inhumanity. It can pursue cases when a country asks for an investigation within its territory or of its citizens, when the UN Security Council requests a probe, or when an ICC panel of judges authorizes an inquiry initiated by the court’s prosecutor.
“When a person is arrested under a warrant of arrest from the ICC, he should be turned over to law enforcement officer of a member state, and is to be flown to The Hague, The Netherlands ASAP,” Kristina Conti, ICC assistant to counsel, said on a Facebook post.
The ICC issued a warrant of arrest for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November for what it called “crimes against humanity and war crimes” in Israel’s military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
While the arrest warrant is likely to limit the countries to which Netanyahu can travel without fear of arrest, it’s unlikely he’ll ever face trial. Israel has said it will appeal the ICC ruling.
More than a dozen Rodrigo Duterte supporters were at the airbase’s gate, some livestreaming the event, while political allies including two senatorial candidates arrived to show support. At least four truckloads of anti-riot police guarded a gate of the airbase.
Duterte had planned to run again for mayor of his hometown Davao City in the May midterm election. Duterte said this week he’s ready to go to jail if the ICC orders his arrest. He has also defended his legacy-defining drug war, telling supporters at a Hong Kong stadium that he did it for them and their children.
“If that’s my fate, that’s fine I will accept it,” Duterte told supporters on Sunday in Hong Kong, according to a video posted on Facebook by broadcaster Bombo Radyo. “We can’t do anything if I’m arrested or imprisoned.”
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