Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on Tuesday, March 11, at the Manila International Airport after an arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) charging him with murder as a crime against humanity.
Duterte was arrested at the airport after returning from a trip to Hong Kong. He has been accused of allowing thousands of extra judicial killings to take place in a nationwide anti-drug campaign, also known as the “war on drugs” during his presidency.
The arrest warrant, issued by a three-judge panel of the ICC on March 7, claimed that investigation into the extrajudicial killings appears to establish a “widespread and systematic” murder regime under the Duterte government. It held him individually responsible for those crimes against humanity, The Straits Times reported.
Anywhere between 5,000 to 20,000 people (depending on the various estimates by the government, civil rights groups, and opposition leaders) were killed during the national anti-drug campaign the Duterte government launched after assuming presidency in 2016.
The warrant also claims that hundreds of extra judicial killings also took place when Duterte was the mayor of Davao city, carried out by the Davao Death Squad.
The ICC led an investigation into the allegations against Duterte over a period of eight years between November 1, 2011, when he was still the mayor of Davao city, and March 16, 2019, when the Philippines decided to withdraw from the Rome statute.
The ICC published the investigation report in December 2020 which confirmed that the Duterte government committed “crimes like murder, torture, inflicting serious physical injury and mental harm” on thousands of victims under the so-called “war on drugs” campaign.
Read more: Philippines’ justice secretary admits wrongdoing in anti-drug operations
The Duterte government, at the time, dismissed the charges against it as “merely speculative” and questioned the ICC’s jurisdiction in carrying out any such investigation.
Duterte’s successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., also opposed the ICC in 2022 on similar lines. It rejected the allegation that the killings under the war on drugs campaign amounted to “crimes against humanity”.
The Marcos Jr. government had emphasized that it was capable and willing to investigate the allegations of extrajudicial killings under national laws without any external intervention. However, no formal charges were brought against Duterte in the domestic courts in the last two years.
Read more: Marcos administration opposes resuming ICC probe in ‘war on drugs’ killings
Meanwhile, the ICC pressed on with its case against Duterte under article 27 of the Rome statute. According to the article, criminal procedures initiated on incidents which happened before the withdrawal of consent of a state party are valid.
Change in Marcos Jr.-led government’s stance
Despite its earlier objections, the Marcos Jr. government cooperated in Duterte’s arrest on Tuesday. The Philippines National Police (PNP) assisted Interpol which executed the arrest warrant. The Marcos Jr. government also expressed its willingness to comply with ICC directives.
The change in the Marcos Jr.-led government’s stance on Duterte is attributed to recent changes in the dynamic between Marcos Jr. and the Duterte family. Duterte’s daughter, Sara, who was vice president in the government, was impeached last month and is awaiting trial over allegations of misuse of state funds.
Despite expressing his readiness to face trial on Monday, Duterte still denied any wrongdoing on Tuesday. He also questioned the legal basis of his arrest.
Duterte’s arrest was welcomed by activists in the Philippines. Erde Olalia, chairperson of the National Union of People’s Lawyers said in a post on X, “this is the beginning of an end and a result of collective pushback over the years” demanding justice must be served against all those who enabled Duterte’s tyrant regime.
The League of Filipino Students, a group of left-leaning activists in the Philippines who have campaigned against the extrajudicial killings, welcomed the arrest and demanded swift action to “make Duterte accountable for his crimes against people.”
“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,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Tuesday.
