Former President Rodrigo Duterte arrested in Manila on an ICC warrant over drug killings

Former President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte arrives inside the Southorn Stadium during a thanksgiving gathering organized by Hong Kong-based Filipino workers, March 9

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested Tuesday on a warrant from the International Criminal Court accusing him of crimes against humanity over deadly anti-drugs crackdowns he oversaw while in office, the Philippine government said.

Duterte was taken into custody at the Manila international airport after arriving from Hong Kong with his family, becoming the first former Asian leader to be arrested by the global court. He was later driven to the nearby Villamor Air Base. It was unclear where he would be taken next by authorities.

Clad in a dark jacket, an irate Duterte protested his arrest after arrival and asked authorities the legal basis of his being taken into custody. His lawyers immediately asked the Supreme Court in Manila to block any attempt to transport him out of the Philippines to be handed over to the ICC in Europe.

“Show to me now the legal basis for my being here,” Duterte asked authorities in remarks captured on video by his daughter, Veronica Duterte, who posted it on social media. “You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty.

The surprise arrest sparked a commotion at the airport, where lawyers and aides of Duterte loudly protested that they, along with a doctor and lawyers, were prevented from coming close to him after he was taken into police custody. “This is a violation of his constitutional right,” Sen. Bong Go, a close Duterte ally, told reporters.

ICC probing mass killings under Duterte

The ICC has been investigating mass killings in crackdowns overseen by Duterte when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president. Estimates of the death toll of the crackdown under Duterte as president vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.

“Upon his arrival, the prosecutor general served the ICC notification for an arrest warrant to the former president for crime against humanity,” the government said. “He’s now in the custody of authorities.”

The warrant of arrest sent by the ICC to Philippine officials, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press, said “there are reasonable grounds to believe that” the attack on victims “was both widespread and systematic: the attack took place over a period of several years and thousands people appear to have been killed.”

Duterte’s arrest was necessary “to ensure his appearance before the court,” according to the March 7 warrant, adding that the former president was expected to ignore court summons.

Although Duterte is no longer president, he “appears to continue to wield considerable power,” it said.

“Mindful of the resultant risk of interference with the investigations and the security of witnesses and victims, the chamber is satisfied that the arrest of Mr. Duterte is necessary.”

There was no immediate comment on Duterte’s arrest from the court or the ICC prosecutor’s office in The Hague, Netherlands.

Families of the slain celebrate the arrest

Duterte’s arrest and downfall stunned families of slain victims of his crackdown and drove some to tears. Some immediately gathered in a street rally to express their relief.

“This is a big, long-awaited day for justice,” Randy delos Santos, the uncle of a teenager gunned down by police in a dark riverside alley during an anti-drug operation in suburban Caloocan city in August 2017 in the capital region, told the AP.

“Now we feel that justice is rolling. We hope that top police officials and the hundreds of police officers who were involved in the illegal killings should also be placed in custody and punished,” delos Santos said.

Three of the police officers who killed his nephew, Kian delos Santos, were convicted in 2018 for the high-profile murder, which prompted Duterte at the time to temporarily suspend his anti-drugs crackdown.

The conviction was one of only around three so far against law enforcers involved in the anti-drugs campaign, reflecting the concerns of families of victims of suspected extrajudicial killings that they would not get justice in the Philippines, hence their decision to seek the help of the ICC.

Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes, one of the harshest critics of Duterte who led the filing of a complaint against him before the ICC said the arrest was historic and a major blow to state impunity and tyranny anywhere in the world.

“This is like the downfall of an emperor,” Trillanes told the AP. “The next step now is to make sure that all his followers who have committed criminal transgressions like him should also be held to account.”

The government said the 79-year-old former leader was in good health and was examined by government doctors following his arrest.

Duterte tried to head off ICC probe

The ICC began investigating drug killings under Duterte from Nov. 1, 2011, when he was still mayor of the southern city of Davao, to March 16, 2019, as possible crimes against humanity. Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the Rome Statute in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability.

The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court’s investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations, arguing the ICC — a court of last resort — therefore didn’t have jurisdiction.

Appeals judges at the ICC ruled in 2023 the investigation could resume and rejected the Duterte administration’s objections. Based in The Hague, the Netherlands, the ICC can step in when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute suspects in the most heinous international crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded Duterte in 2022 and became entangled in a bitter political dispute with the former president, has decided not to rejoin the global court. But the Marcos administration had said it would cooperate if the ICC asked international police to take Duterte into custody through a so-called Red Notice, a request for law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and temporarily arrest a crime suspect. JIM GOMEZ, MANILA, MDT/AP