Manila, Philippines – The office of the President of the Philippines has reported the arrest of the country’s former leader, Rodrigo Duterte, after receiving a request from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating allegations of “crimes against humanity” committed during his presidency.
Duterte was taken into custody on Tuesday at Manila airport upon his arrival from Hong Kong, according to the Philippine government, which received the ICC request through the international police agency, Interpol.
“Upon his arrival, the prosecutor general served the ICC notification for an arrest warrant to the former president for the crime of crime against humanity,” the government said in a statement.
“He’s now in the custody of authorities,” it said.
The charge of “crimes against humanity” is related to Duterte’s brutal anti-drugs drive. The so-called “war on drugs”, while Duterte was in office from 2016-2022, deprived suspects of “due process under the law”, according to the arrest warrant, and resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, including children.
In a statement, Human Rights Watch (HRW) described Duterte’s arrest as “a critical step for accountability in the Philippines”.
“His arrest could bring victims and their families closer to justice and sends the clear message that no one is above the law. The Marcos government should swiftly surrender him to the ICC,” said Bryony Lau, HRW’s deputy Asia director.
Duterte, however, questioned the legality of his arrest on Tuesday.
“What is the law and what is the crime that I committed,” Duterte said in a video uploaded on social media by his daughter, Veronica Duterte.
“Explain to me now the legal basis for my being here as apparently I was brought here not of my own volition. It’s somebody else’s,” he added.
In a speech on Saturday in Hong Kong, he also defended his actions as president saying he “did everything…for the Filipino people”.
“If it’s really my fate in life, that’s OK, I will accept it. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
Over the course of Duterte’s six-year presidency, more than 7,000 people were killed in official anti-drug operations, according to police records.
However, human rights advocates have claimed that the killings numbered more than 30,000, including those who were killed by unknown suspects, some of whom later turned out to be police officers.
‘Shoot and kill’
The ICC began examining the complaint in 2018. The arrest order is a major victory for human rights campaigners and families of victims, despite Manila’s decision to withdraw as signatory of the Rome Statute.
During his presidency, Duterte declared a relentless war against drugs, inciting police officers to either “shoot and kill” drug suspects, or provoke them into fighting back to justify the use of lethal force.
Most of the cases probed by the ICC took place between 2016 and 2019, when a Duterte order to withdraw from the ICC came into effect.
Earlier alleged crimes committed when Duterte was mayor of the southern city of Davao, where he served for two decades, were also investigated.
Among those killed during the anti-drug war campaign were more than a dozen town mayors and other local officials as well as lawyers and judges.
Several children, who were without any links to any drug activity, were also killed. The government dismissed these deaths as “collateral damage”.
The ICC’s investigation into the bloody drug-war had so enraged Duterte, that he ordered the the withdrawal of Manila from the ICC.
He also threatened, using racially-charged language, to arrest then-ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda should she visit the Philippines to conduct an official investigation.
Bensouda retired in 2021 and was succeeded by Karim Khan, who continued the investigation.
The Rome Statute, an international treaty that established the ICC to oversee cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression, came into force in 2002. The Philippines originally ratified it in 2011.
