Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on an International Criminal Court warrant for his war on drugs while president.
After returning from Hong Kong, the former strongman was detained by Filipino authorities at Manila International Airport. His arrest made him a rare case, as he is the first former state leader arrested on an ICC warrant and the first former Asian leader to be arrested on an ICC warrant. He is wanted for crimes against humanity during his 2016-2022 presidential term, during which police and vigilantes killed upward of tens of thousands of people extrajudicially.
Duterte quickly disputed the legality of his arrest.
“Show to me now the legal basis for my being here,” he said during the arrest in a video recorded by his daughter Veronica Duterte. “You have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty.”
Philippine authorities quickly confirmed his arrest in a statement.
“Upon his arrival, the prosecutor general served the ICC notification for an arrest warrant to the former president for crimes against humanity,” the statement said. “He’s now in the custody of authorities.”
His family forcibly denounced his arrest, with his other daughter Sara Duterte saying her father was “forcibly being taken” to the Hague.
“This is not justice — this is oppression and persecution,” she said.
Rodrigo Duterte’s lawyers quickly petitioned the Supreme Court to block his extradition to the Hague.
A copy of the arrest warrant, which was viewed by several outlets, said the ICC had “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is individually responsible for the crime against humanity of murder” during his presidency and going back to his stint as mayor of Davao in the 1990s.
It added that the crimes were “both widespread and systematic: the attack took place over a period of several years, and thousands of people appear to have been killed.”
Rodrigo Duterte is best known for his war on drugs, during which he gave police authority to kill suspected drug dealers. He also encouraged vigilante violence against both drug dealers and addicts. Manila even enlisted the help of groups it fought, such as the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Estimates of the number of people killed in the war range from 12,000 to 30,000. Critics have alleged many people used the war to settle personal scores by accusing other people of involvement in the drug trade as cover.
Rodrigo Duterte’s trademark belligerent rhetoric also played into criticism, including a speech on Sept. 30, 2016, during which he compared himself to Adolf Hitler.
“Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now, there are 3 million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” the former president said.
Despite heavy backlash internationally and from the Catholic Church, the drug war helped reduce the drug problem in the country and was widely popular. Rodrigo Duterte left office with an over 70% approval rating.
Philippine authorities acquiescing to the arrest reflected the breakdown in relations between the two most powerful political dynasties in the Philippines — that of Duterte and current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. While they were formerly allies, relations between Sara Duterte and the president have broken down in recent months. The rift culminated in Marcos announcing that he would carry out an ICC warrant for Rodrigo Duterte after previously saying he wouldn’t. The Philippine House of Representatives impeached Sara Duterte last month on accusations that she plotted to assassinate Marcos.
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Few heads or former heads of state have been arrested on warrants from the ICC and other United Nations-linked courts. Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, former Liberian President Charles Taylor, former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, and former Sudanese President Omar al Bashir are the only other heads of state who were arrested on warrants from the ICC or other U.N.-linked courts.
ICC warrants are also outstanding for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
