Philippine federal authorities Tuesday arrested former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity issued an arrest warrant.
According to human rights groups, nearly 30,000 people were killed in the “war on drugs”, by police or armed individuals suspected to have ties to drug gangs. Most of the people slain often came from poor or marginalized backgrounds. The killings took place during his presidency and his time as mayor of Davao City.
Following his arrest warrant issue, Duterte was put on Red Notice Alert by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).
Rappler first confirmed the news of Duterte’s arrest. He was detained by police at Ninoy Aquino International Airport after flying in from Hong Kong, where he attended an event with local overseas Filipino workers.
Reportedly, the day before Duterte’s arrest, a top-level source told Rappler that an arrest warrant had been issued and that the Philippine National Police (PNP) were preparing for his return.
Another source told Rappler that Duterte had already been taken into custody, which was later confirmed by a separate security source and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration. While Marcos’s administration didn’t directly cooperate with the ICC, it honored its commitment to Interpol.
Duterte’s arrest was welcomed by human rights groups, activists, and families of anti-drug crackdown victims as a step towards justice.
“Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest is a long-awaited and monumental step for justice for the thousands of victims and survivors of his administration’s ‘war on drugs’, which turned much of the Philippines into a nation of mourning. The man who said, ‘my job is to kill’ oversaw the shootings to death of victims – including children – as part of a deliberate, widespread and well-organized campaign of state-sanctioned killings,” said Amnesty International Secretary General, Agnes Callamard in a statement.
“Duterte’s arrest on an ICC warrant is a hopeful sign for victims in the Philippines and beyond. It shows that suspected perpetrators of the worst crimes, including government leaders, can and will face justice, wherever they are in the world. At a time when too many governments renege on their ICC obligations while others attack or sanction international courts, Duterte’s arrest is a huge moment for the power of international law.”
“This is only the start of our fight.”, said Llore Pasco, the mother of two drug war victims, in a Reuters interview. “Our justice has not yet been achieved because there’s still a lot of things that will happen, but we will not stop fighting,”
Despite this, the former president still has his fair share of support from loyalists, who condemned Duterte’s arrest alongside his family.
“The reaction is deeply polarized,” said Filipino political scientist Cleve Arguelles in an NPR interview. “Duterte’s loyalists and political allies are mobilizing in defense of their leader, framing this as foreign interference and political persecution,”.
Hours after his arrest, Duterte was sent to The Hague at the request of the ICC, as mentioned by multiple sources. In a statement acquired by The Philippine Star, Sara Duterte, the Vice President of the Philippines and Duterte’s daughter said “As I write this, he is being forcibly taken to The Hague tonight. This is not justice – this is oppression and persecution… God save the Philippines”
Duterte’s youngest daughter, Veronica, also confirmed his flight to the Netherlands, posting on her Instagram, “They took Dad from us, put him on a plane, and wouldn’t say where to. People, wake up,” per Reuters.
Duterte will be the first Asian former head of state to stand trial at the ICC. As mentioned by Rappler, he is one of five former or sitting heads of state with an arrest warrant from the ICC. These include two current leaders, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and two former leaders, Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s Saif Gaddafi.
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