Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is under police custody after the International Criminal Court ordered his arrest following a probe into his deadly drug war that defined his rule.
Duterte was arrested by police at the Manila airport shortly after his arrival on Tuesday from Hong Kong, where he had addressed supporters only days earlier. Interpol Manila received a copy of the arrest warrant from the ICC, according to a statement from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s communications office.
Duterte, 79, is the first Philippine former leader to be served an ICC arrest warrant and the detention followed days of speculation. It’s a stunning blow to Duterte, once known as the Donald Trump of Asia for his radical leadership style, and marks a new turn in his family’s escalating feud with Marcos.
Duterte’s daughter Sara was impeached as vice president by Marcos’ allies in the House of Representatives last month on charges she plotted to kill Marcos and misused public funds — accusations she’s denied. A Senate trial, which would determine if she will be removed from office, is scheduled to begin in July.
Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign during his 2016-2022 presidency killed more than 6,000 people, according to government data. Human rights groups estimate the death toll to have been higher, with most of those killed among the poor.
“I feel he has been deprived of his legal rights,” former Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello, a member of Rodrigo Duterte’s legal team, told reporters at the Villamor military airbase in the capital, where the former leader was brought by authorities. Bello said he received information that Duterte would be transferred to a government hospital.
Duterte questioned the legal basis of his arrest. “I was brought here not of my own volition. It’s somebody else’s. What is the law and what is the crime that I committed?” he said in a video posted on daughter Veronica Duterte’s Facebook page.
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.
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.
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 U.N. 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.
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.
But relations have since soured between the Marcos and Duterte camps due to policy differences. In a change of tone, the Marcos government last year said it would cooperate if the ICC refers the process to Interpol and seeks the Philippines’ help.
“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.”
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. We can’t do anything if I’m arrested or imprisoned,” he said before a crowd of Filipino supporters on Sunday in Hong Kong, according to a video posted on Facebook by broadcaster Bombo Radyo.
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With assistance from Cecilia Yap, Ramsey Al-Rikabi, Philip J. Heijmans, Jon Herskovitz and Manolo Serapio Jr..
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