Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrested on ICC warrant

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating allegations that “crimes against humanity” were committed during his so-called “war on drugs”.

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 via Interpol, the international police agency.

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

The charge is related to Duterte’s brutal anti-drugs drive, which he ran during his time in office from 2016 to 2022. Suspects were deprived of “due process under the law” and thousands of people, including children, died, according to the complaint.

The former president questioned the legality of the arrest.

“What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?” Duterte said in a video uploaded to 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 had defended his actions as president, saying he “did everything … for the Filipino people”.

Over the course of Duterte’s six-year presidency, more than 7,000 people were killed in 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.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Duterte’s arrest “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,” Bryony Lau, HRW’s deputy Asia director, said in a statement.

The ICC began examining the complaint in 2018.

The arrest order is seen as a victory for human rights campaigners and families of victims, despite Manila’s decision to withdraw as a 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 investigated 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 campaign were more than a dozen town mayors and other local officials as well as lawyers and judges.

Several children, with no links to any drug activity, were also killed. The government dismissed these deaths as “collateral damage”.

The ICC investigation into the anti-drug operations had so enraged Duterte that he ordered 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.